c. 1998 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ Two decades ago, Pope John Paul II triumphantly returned to his native Poland, a country stifled by 35 years of Soviet domination, and helped trigger the remarkable chain of events that toppled the Iron Curtain.
Now 77 and hobbled by physical ailments, the pontiff will soon travel to the last of the hard-line Marxist states, Cuba, with an agenda that, at least publicly, is much more limited.
The objective of the Cuba trip, say to high-ranking church officials, is to minister to the faithful and assure them they have the support of the Catholic hierarchy.
But, church watchers and Cuba experts say, the Vatican and the Cuban church also have more far-reaching and difficult-to-attain objectives. If met, they could have implications for the Cuban regime’s grasp on power.
Fidel Castro also hopes to benefit from the pope’s five-day tour, which begins Jan. 21. Himself an aging figure bent on securing a place in history, Castro’s invitation to a pope with impeccable anti-communist credentials is meant to demonstrate that anyone can deal with Cuba, which is working feverishly to improve trade and diplomatic relations.
“They are both wise and shrewd leaders, and they both want to use the occasion for their particular goals,” said Brian Smith, professor of religion at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisc., and the author of a book on the Catholic Church in Latin America.
Clearly, though, it’s the church that is faced with goals that may prove difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill. While the Vatican and American church officials _ mindful of the sensitive nature of the trip _ are careful to speak publicly of the tour only in spiritual terms, others say unofficially that the Vatican hopes the church will play a more prominent role in Cuban society.
Through either improved relations with Castro’s government or the use of international opinion to pressure the regime, the church is moving to re-establish its ability to run religious schools, use the government-controlled mass media and receive permission to operate religious-based social groups _ all of which Cuba now bans or severely restricts.
Yet, observers say, the papal tour calls for diplomacy, not confrontation. So, if the church wins concessions, it will be because the regime agreed to changes deemed nonthreatening to its stability.
“The pope is not going to Cuba to play politics. The pope is going to Cuba for pastoral purposes that may have other effects,” said Jose Manuel Hernandez, a former associate dean at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C, and an an expert on religion in his native Cuba.
“I think he wants to solidify the position of the Cuban church,” Hernandez added. “The Cuban church needs more priests than it has. It needs access to the communications media.”
Cuba, on the other hand, needs to continue forging economic ties with the capitalist world, an objective that gets a boost with the visit of the pontiff, Cuba experts say. By meeting socialism’s most stalwart standard bearer, the pope highlights the hard-line policies of the United States, which refuses to re-establish diplomatic relations while enforcing a Cold War-era embargo that has hamstrung the island since the early 1960s. The Vatican has spoken out against the embargo.
“The U.S. will stand isolated, and that’s what Castro wants out of it _ the greater legitimacy that will come out of it,” said Wayne Smith, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana during the Carter administration.
Now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, Smith added that the papal tour underscores that the way to bring about change in Cuba is “through engagement, dialogue and working with the government. It is the antithesis to U.S. policy.”
Still, observers say there are pitfalls for Castro’s government.
“The invitation is an example of extreme bravado or stupidity on the part of Castro, considering the track record of other communist leaders who invited the pope to their land and their subsequent longevity,” said John Grondelski, associate dean of the theology school at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.
“It’s quite a telling point that mainland China refuses to invite the pope. I think Castro is playing with fire and he’ll get burned.”
Grondelski and other church historians point to the pontiff’s much-publicized role in the rise of Solidarity in communist Poland and the subsequent downfall of the Soviet-propped government.
A year after his 1978 election to the papacy, John Paul II made a historic return to his homeland. Millions proudly welcomed the leader who had studied for the priesthood in an underground seminary during the German occupation and risen through the ranks of the church in a country dominated by the Soviet Union. He spoke forcefully, clearly stating his support for his fellow Poles, then bristling under communist rule.
Church observers say John Paul II, who vigorously supported Solidarity and urged Polish leaders to negotiate with the movement’s leaders, has not lost his contempt for authoritarian socialist regimes.
“Any country under communist domination that is suffering and not being permitted freedom of religion is especially on his mind,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a noted Vatican watcher and author. “He’s been in that situation. He’s lived that and identifies with the situation.”
Yet many experts on the church and Cuba caution that it would be a mistake to expect the pope to use similar tactics in Cuba _ or achieve similar results.
In his groundbreaking 1979 tour of Poland, the charismatic and energetic pope, then 59, was on familiar ground, facing down the unpopular leaders propped up by Moscow. He also arrived in a deeply Catholic country where the church had become a powerful vehicle for change.
Cuba _ whose Catholic tradition has never been as strong as Poland’s _ is much different.
In the early days of the revolution, the church leadership opposed Castro and, as a result, the church suffered a wave of repression _ the expulsion of foreign clergy, the banning of religious schools _ that threatened to make it irrelevant. Only in recent years, with the loss of Cuba’s economic benefactor, the Soviet Union, has the church been allowed to rebound as Castro sought better relations with the West.
But the church treads carefully. For while Castro has become less doctrinaire in his ideology, the church’s position remains tenuous. Many of those who practice religion in Cuba, experts note, are Protestant. And Afro-Cuban religions, notably Santeria, are strong. Under these circumstances, support for the pope might not be as pervasive as it was in Eastern Europe or other parts of Latin America.
“He’s a Pole, not a Cuban, and there’s a big difference,” Reese said. “Castro has been a much more popular leader than any of the communist leaders in Poland. We’re not going to see a collapse of communism after the visit.”
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There is general agreement, though, that the pope’s presence will provide a spiritual boost _ a revival for a church in need of a lift. With the church already undergoing some resurgence, the pope’s presence and words could help propel the church to push for further religious freedoms.
Wayne Smith, the former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, said that while some goals _ such as the operation of religious schools _ are unlikely to reach fruition any time soon, other objectives are more realistic.
“There’re some specific things the pope would like to see come out of this: a strengthened church, more priests, more seminarians, more nuns, greater access to the media, the ability to distribute more of their church publications,” Smith said.
Already, the pope has won once-unheard concessions from Havana: he can hold outdoor Masses sure to draw huge crowds, he has the ability to give uncensored speeches and he has control of the planning process for his trip. The government also allowed a papal message to Cubans on the general importance of religion to recently be printed on the front page of the government-run newspaper, Granma.
Castro even went so far as to declare Christmas a holiday this year, bowing to the pope’s request.
Perhaps cognizant of the pope’s appeal, the Cuban government has tried to contain the pontiff’s drawing power. The church, for instance, has been unable to promote the papal visit through the state-run media. It also remains unclear whether the Masses will be televised, normal procedure in other countries the pope has visited.
Still, most church watchers are optimistic about the impact of the papal tour.
“The fact that you have someone who represents an alternative view of humanity and of the world coming to Cuba … that in itself is an event of tremendous significance,” said the Rev. Claudio Burgaleta, professor of theology at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City and a Cuban native. “It already shows Cuban Catholics and others back in Cuba that there is a different way, that there are other possibilities.”
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