NEWS ANALYSIS: Can John Paul thaw U.S.-Cuban relations?

c. 1998 Religion News Service HAVANA _ Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Cuba has the potential to unfreeze a 40-year chill between Havana and Washington and, Cuban President Fidel Castro hopes, ease America’s stringent embargo on the Caribbean island nation. The pontiff’s trip, which began Wednesday (Jan. 21), has made the Clinton administration […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

HAVANA _ Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Cuba has the potential to unfreeze a 40-year chill between Havana and Washington and, Cuban President Fidel Castro hopes, ease America’s stringent embargo on the Caribbean island nation.

The pontiff’s trip, which began Wednesday (Jan. 21), has made the Clinton administration nervous because John Paul’s criticism of capitalism and”neoliberalism”_ the free market policies the U.S. and the World Bank insist developing countries embrace _ echo Fidel Castro’s condemnation of social injustices in Western societies.


And John Paul is also a longstanding critic of economic embargoes, whether against Cuba, Iraq, or other nations. But the U.S. sanctions against Cuba are the oldest and best known example of this type of economic warfare.

All U.S. trade with Cuba has been prohibited since 1962. More recent laws, passed in 1992 and 1996, tightened the embargo by establishing punishments for foreign companies that trade with Cuba, a move angering many U.S. allies as well as church and human rights groups in the United States.

John Paul’s purpose in visiting Cuba, however, is not to embarrass the United States, but to win more”breathing room”for the Catholic Church in Cuba, the pontiff said.

To that end, the Vatican is lobbying Castro’s government for more access for the church to the state-run media, for the establishment of parochial schools in Cuba, and for permission to augment the thin ranks of Cuban Catholic clergy on the island, which is now home to only about 250 priests.

If Castro grants some of the Vatican’s wishes, the Clinton administration appears ready to respond in a positive way.

Michael Ranneberger, head of the State Department’s Cuba desk, made a special trip to Havana to monitor the pope’s trip.”I’ve come to Cuba largely for familiarization,”he said.

But Ranneberger also carried an important message: the United States is ready to respond favorably if Castro grants Cuba’s 11 million people greater religious freedoms.”We consider the pope’s visit a very important development,”Ranneberger said. But he stressed the United States would not make a move toward engagement in Cuba until Castro took”fundamental and systemic”steps toward greater democracy in Cuba. Greater religious freedom in Cuba would fit the bill, the State Department official said.”A broader opening for the church in Cuba would be viewed as a systemic change,”Ranneberger said.


Such views were echoed, in a more muted way, in Washington.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said Thursday there will be no easing of the sanctions unless there are major changes in Cuba.”I do not see that (sanctions) policy changing absent some major change in Castro’s policy,”he said.

On Wednesday, President Clinton, interviewed on the PBS program”NewsHour with Jim Lehrer”said he was”glad the pope is going”to Cuba but rebuffed John Paul’s call for”change”in U.S. policy.”I think that our previous policy, the one that we’ve had now and the one we’ve had through Republican and Democratic administrations of keeping economic pressure on and in denying the legitimacy of the Cuban government, has been a good policy,”he said.

Castro cracked down on the Cuban Catholic Church shortly after assuming power in 1959 because he viewed its clergy as”counter-revolutionary.”But the Cuban leader has, since 1984, taken gradual steps toward healing his rift with religion. In 1991, Castro removed workplace sanctions against believers. In 1992, the Cuban constitution was amended to change Cuba from an atheist state to a secular one.

Castro also has worked at improving relations with the U.S. Catholic Church and other religious groups since they assisted the island with millions of dollars of humanitarian aid, permissible under embargo law, when the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged Cuba into a recession.”Respect for believers and non-believers alike is a basic revolutionary principle Cubans try to impress on their fellow citizens,”Castro told John Paul II when the pontiff arrived at Havana’s Jose Marti airport.

The question now is how much further Castro is willing to go, and whether any new steps toward greater religious freedom would be considered”fundamental and systemic”by Washington.

Castro is not likely to allow Catholic schools to give competition to his state school system. While Havana’s archbishop, the Cardinal Jaime Ortega, gave an unprecedented half-hour speech on Cuban state television before the pope touched down in Havana, it’s unlikely Cuban priests will become regulars on prime time.


Yet Castro may allow the local church to publish more information: a few months ago it was given permission to distribute the first religious publication in Cuba since the revolution. And Castro may sanction the teaching of the Catechism in special classes.

But it’s up to Clinton to judge whether anything Castro does is enough for the United States to engage Cuba. The president is hamstrung by Congress’ control of the laws defining the U.S. embargo.

Clinton has repeatedly said he wishes the United States had better relations with Cuba. If Castro shares that wish, he could use John Paul II’s trip to pave the way.

DEA END RADELAT

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!