Pope visits Castro's turf

Christian Century, Feb 4, 1998

Until the end of his history-making trip to communist Cuba, Pope John Paul II boldly, and sometimes bluntly, blended spiritual and political themes. On January 25, his last day in Cuba, the pope called on the government to open "new paths" of freedom for the people and the Roman Catholic Church.

The 77-year-old pontiffs five-day visit, his first to Cuba, was viewed in advance as historic, and a sense of history-in-the-making was palpable in Havana's Plaza of the Revolution, where some 300,000 people, including President Fidel Castro, gathered as John Paul celebrated the last of the four open-air masses on his Cuban schedule.

The festive crowd repeatedly greeted the pope's remarks with cries of "Freedom! Freedom!" and "Long live John Paul!" as he spoke to worshipers about renewal and told them that the "spirit of the Lord" had sent him to "proclaim the release of captives and liberty to the oppressed." They were themes--radical in this authoritarian state--that the pope repeatedly returned to during his travels across the island nation. At the same time, he was careful to insist that the church itself does not seek political power.

"If you told me before that this would be said in Cuba, that no one who heard it would be arrested but would applaud in public, I would have said you were crazy," said Manuel Portela Tapanes, an English teacher at a Havana language school.

Responding to the five days of chiding that he and his regime took from the pope, a stoic Castro defended the government. And he used the opportunity to again criticize the U.S. as he had in his remarks at the pope's arrival. "This place today, with its problems, is confronting the biggest power in the world like a small David," he said. "It is trying to survive against a Goliath, a nuclear Goliath, that is trying to stop our development." Castro warmly thanked the pontiff for his visit, "for all your expressions of affection to the Cuban people, for all your words, even those with which I might disagree." But the Cuban leader promised no changes.

One specific test as to whether change will come is likely to be the government's response to the pope's pleas that it release some or A of what human rights organizations say are at least 500 political prisoners in Cuban jails; Vatican officials said they had been promised a quick response by Cuban officials on this issue. In remarks published January 28 in the official Prensa Latina news service, Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban national assembly, said, "The request will be considered in all seriousness . . . given the way in which it was made and who made it." Alarcon suggested that some sentences might be reduced and that other prisoners might be released early on humanitarian grounds. But he insisted that no decision had yet been made.

With Cuba's onetime Soviet financial prop now gone, the country's economy is in shambles. Castro was presumed to have gambled on allowing the papal visit because of his need to undermine the nearly 40-year-old U.S. economic embargo, thereby saving his regime through economic recovery. John Paul, in keeping with Catholic social teaching, has consistently opposed economic embargoes because of their impact on society's poorest members, and during his visit he was as critical of the embargo as he was of Cuban government policies.

In remarks at the airport just before departing, the pontiff made his strongest antiembargo comments to date, saying: "No nation can live in isolation. The Cuban people, therefore, cannot be denied the contacts with other peoples necessary for economic, social and cultural development, especially when the imposed isolation strikes the population indiscriminately, making it ever more difficult for the weakest to enjoy the bare essentials."

U.S. bishops in Havana for the visit told reporters that John Paul's remarks put them in a stronger position to push for an end to the economic sanctions. But on January 26 Clinton administration officials rejected the possibility of any immediate change in U.S. policy--while praising John Paul's words in Cuba, saying he spoke "eloquently." Commented White House spokesman Michael McCurry: "We understand and respect the pope's opposing the use of economic sanctions in Cuba and elsewhere. However, the Cuban embargo is a matter of U.S. law, and that law enjoys very strong bipartisan support in our Congress and among the American people, who believe the time for peaceful change must come and must come soon in Cuba." Concerning the embargo, McCurry said, "We very respectfully disagree with the Holy Father."

In addition to criticizing the U.S. embargo, John Paul pleased the socialist Castro by sharply criticizing "neoliberal" capitalism, saying it "subordinates the human person to blind market forces and conditions the development of people on those forces."

Calling for a "climate of freedom, mutual trust, social justice and lasting peace" in Cuba, John Paul also repeatedly spoke out for greater religious freedom, especially for the Catholic Church. At a January 24 mass in Santiago the pope said "true freedom" includes "the recognition of human rights and social justice." Lay Catholics, he went on to say, "have the duty and the right to participate in public debate on the basis of equality. Defending her own freedom, the church defends the freedom of each individual, of families, of different social units." In speaking of the active role that people should play in creating a better society, John Paul declared that "each person, enjoying freedom of expression, being free to undertake initiatives and make proposals within civil society, and enjoying appropriate freedom of association, will be able to cooperate effectively in the pursuit of the common good." The pope also called for the reopening of the Cuban Catholic school system, which was nationalized by the state in the early 1960s following church opposition to Castro's policies.