c. 1998 Religion News Service
CAMAGUEY, Cuba _ Pope John Paul II traveled to one of Cuba’s most churched regions Friday (Jan. 23) and made an emotional appeal to the nation’s youth to embrace the church as a way to”a future of ever-greater dignity and freedom.” And _ in the words Cuban President Fidel Castro most wanted to hear _ John Paul specifically criticized the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, saying such sanctions are”always deplorable because they hurt the most needy.” The call was a more specific follow-up to comments John Paul made on his plane trip from Rome to Havana, where he told reporters America should”change”its policy of seeking to economically isolate Cuba and in his remarks upon arriving at Jose Marti International Airport on Wednesday (Jan. 21), when he called on the world to”open itself”to Cuba.
John Paul’s criticism was part of a written message to youths made public at the open-air Mass, celebrated in this town some 300 miles from Havana and the second open-air liturgy celebrated during the pontiff’s unprecedented five-day trip to Cuba.
The 77-year-old pontiff celebrated Friday’s Mass at a large, pink altar area constructed next to a huge monument to local independence hero Iganacio Agramonte. He was protected from the blazing Caribbean sun by a white canopy decorated with green leaves.
As in his other public appearances, the pope was greeted by thousands of enthusiastic Cubans waving small Cuban and Vatican flags.
In the message distributed to young people, John Paul urged them to return to the country’s”Christian roots”and made a plea that they consider the religious life as a way of serving the nation.”The church in your country desires to be of service not only to Catholics but to the whole Cuban people,”he said.”To offer this service more effectively she urgently needs priests who belong to this people.” The Cuban Catholic Church has suffered from a severe shortage of priests since the 1959 revolution when Castro expelled foreign priests he thought supported the toppled dictator Fulgencio Baptista. The church has about 300 priests and half of those are foreign-born.
In both his message and homily, John Paul urged Cubans not to give in to the hopelessness brought on by the economic difficulties the country faces nor to be attracted by the lures of a consumer society.”What can I say to you, young people of Cuba who live under material conditions which are sometimes difficult, who are sometimes frustrated in your legitimate aspirations and are even deprived of hope itself,”the pope asked.”Resist every temptation to flee from the world and from society,”he said.
The pontiff also took a swipe at the country’s Afro-Caribbean religions.”Do not take refuge in sects, alienating spiritualist cults or groups which are completely foreign to the culture and tradition of your country,”he urged.
John Paul’s words here were less blunt and critical of Cuba’s political and social situation than those he delivered in his first Mass on Thursday.
But he nevertheless warned the Christian youths that they may”suffer marginalization and persecution.” And he said the church has a key role to play in society.”The church has the duty of providing a moral, civic and religious formation which will help the youth of Cuba in human and Christian values,”he said.”This is a duty to be undertaken without fear and with perseverance in an educational effort which calls for time, and the resources and institutions needed for this sowing of virtue and spirituality for the food of the church and of the nation.” On Thursday evening, John Paul and Castro met privately for 50 minutes.
Castro, dressed in a tailored, navy-blue suit, carefully guided the frail pope through the halls of Revolution Palace, the Cuban White House.”It’s only a little further, Holy Father,”Castro said as they walked slowly down a corridor. And he assured the pope”no one will hear”their conversation once they arrived in the private salon set aside for the meeting.
After the meeting, Vatican officials traveling with the pope said Cuban officials had agreed to consider freeing some prisoners who had sought the pope’s intercession.
Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the request was made at separate talks between Vatican and Cuban officials held concurrently with the Casto-John Paul discussions.
According to Vatican officials, the Holy See had received pleas for intercession from Cuban dissidents and exiles for”several hundred”prisoners, some of whom are allegedly being held for political crimes.
But sources said special pleas were made for Dissident Working Group leaders Martha Beatriz Roque, an economist; professor Felix Bonne Carcasses; lawyer Rene Gomez Manzano; and Vladimir Roca Antunez, son of famed Communist Party leader and revolutionary hero Vladimir Roca.
The four were arrested after holding two Havana news conferences last year calling for a boycott of the general elections that were held just two weeks before the pope’s arrival.
At the meeting, Castro also presented John Paul with a first edition of the biography of Felix Varela, a 19th-century priest who is up for sainthood and whose grave John Paul was to visit Friday evening. The pope countered with a reproduction of a Byzantine-era mosaic icon of Jesus.
DEA END RNS
