c. 1998 Religion News Service

HAVANA _ A reflective Fidel Castro praised Pope John Paul II and spoke openly of his own feelings about religion and his religious upbringing during a recent wide-ranging interview with a delegation of U.S. newspaper editors.

Castro has long had an ambiguous relationship to religion, despite his record of religious oppression _ particularly against the Roman Catholic Church _ during the nearly 40 years he has ruled Cuba with an iron hand. That ambiguity was again evident during his Saturday (Oct. 24) meeting with the editors.

During 6 1/2-hours of conversation at a leading Havana tourist hotel, Castro heaped what appeared to be genuine praise on John Paul, who visited Cuba for the first time last January.

Castro said he was worried about the pope when he saw him disembark from the Vatican plane that brought him to Havana. The pope was shaky, fragile, the Cuban leader said.

“I was concerned as he came down the stairs. I felt like breaking protocol and moving to help him. I was afraid he would fall,” said Castro, whose comments in Spanish were translated by an aide.

“The pope’s welcome was to be the best,” Castro said. “A lot of people wanted to translate the pope’s visit into a political visit. We said no signs, no restrictions. The Communist Party gave all the buses”to the church. I told our people to render honor and respect and not to show him any sign of disrespect.”

Continuing in his typically longwinded fashion, the 72-year-old Castro said: “I have a high opinion of the pope. He inspires affection and respect. I was impressed by the pope’s thoughts. He is a man of great culture. He has studied many philosophies,” including Marxism.

“I liked his criticism of the crusades and the Inquisition and his defense of Galileo. His theory of evolution is not incompatible with creation by God. I agree with his criticism of a consumer society.

“I am awaiting his document on poverty,”Castro added, referring to reports the pope may issue an encyclical on poverty and economics.”We coincide on many things. I consider the ethical and moral aspects of the gospels to be very good, including the Ten Commandments. All of those elements is precisely what we tell party members everyday. So I’m not in competition with Catholicism.

“At the bottom of things, though they depart from different philosophies, the gospels and revolutionary Marxism have many things in common,” Castro said.

Castro’s comments on the pope and religious faith were among his most extensive since a 1987 series of interviews he gave to a Brazilian priest identified with the leftwing liberation theology movement. Since then, Castro has repeatedly spoken positively of the pope _ despite John Paul’s staunch anti-communism _ and took the politically risky step of allowing the pontiff to visit Cuba.

If he hadn’t been a revolutionary, “I might have been a martyr of the Catholic church,”Castro continued.”I don’t do things half way.” But Castro also said,”I do not agree with other positions”of the church, such as the ban on birth control. He said he believed the church “will see the need in time” for family planning.

While Castro praised his Jesuit education _ “they taught me a lot” _ he said he “rejected dogmatic education.” He also criticized the church’s attitude of religious intolerance he experienced as a youth, but said he appreciated the pope’s interaction with other religions.

“I think he’s ecumenical. I believe in ecumenism. I didn’t have the privilege of having a good religious experience. I grew up in a religious school, that, unfortunately, taught us to hate anyone who wasn’t a Catholic because they were condemned to hell,” he said.

Castro waxed philosophically about his own beliefs to the group from the American Society of Newspaper Editors.”I don’t have a clear picture of what eternity or heaven or hell is.” He said his concept of God would prevent “a revenge against his creatures,” by sending them to hell. “It would be against my approval to say anyone would go to hell forever.”

Indeed, referring to himself, Castro said “it would be against the principle of human rights to send me to hell forever.”

He said that people ought to do good”for the sake of doing good. He who is only good for the fear of hell; he ought to go there first.” Castro joked about Cuban exiles in Miami praying for his demise. “God must be bad since he has not eliminated me,” he said.

About Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., his ardent foe, the Cuban leader said with a smile and flourish: “I have only Christian thoughts for him.”

Castro also took the opportunity to emphasize some of own beliefs.

“Power is not money or glory. There is no right to steal,” especially from the poor, he said. As a matter of “principle,” he said, he “never tells a lie to the people.”

He also said he has never cared about money and agreed with the pope’s criticism of consumer society. “I hate individualism and selfishness. We don’t want to make anyone rich.”

Castro said he was infuriated by recent reports that he has accumulated great weath while in office. He said he owns no property and gives away thousands of gifts he receives each year, from pajamas to gold watches. He pointed to his own watch and said it was a $30 Seiko.

He also said the Communist Party and government leaders have never profited from their positions.

Oswaldo Paya, a Cuban Catholic dissident who met with several of the American editors, disagreed. He said Communist Party management “is into the dollar” and that corruption was rife.

“We are slaves on a ship and the ship is sinking,” Paya said of Cuba today.

At the same time, Paya said a religious awakening is occurring in Cuba among Christian of all stripes. The”work of evangelicals is extraordinary,”he said of the island’s fast-growing Protestant churches.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana also spoke to the editors, but insisted that most of his comments not be reported. He noted that the church’s priests and nuns are more free to perform their duties today than in the 1960s, right after the revolution when Castro attacked the church for opposing him and he made Cuba an officially atheist nation. Castro has since changed that designation to officially secular.

Ortega said he hoped”for a gradual change, for the church to evolve peacefully and overcome its difficulties.”The cardinal echoed a comment made by the pope during his historic visit here: that”Cuba should open to the world and the world to Cuba.”

IR END HOWELL