c. 1998 Religion News Service
HAVANA _ Pope John Paul II, continuing his bold _ and sometimes blunt _ blending of spiritual and political themes, ended his history-making trip to communist Cuba on Sunday (Jan. 25), calling on the government to open”new paths”of freedom for the people and the Roman Catholic Church.
The pontiff’s five-day visit _ his first to Cuba _ was viewed in advance as historic and a sense of history-in-the-making was palpable Sunday in this city’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 cheered the pope’s remarks, including when he said,”This is the time to start out on the new paths called for by the times of renewal which we are experiencing at the approach of the third millennium of the Christian era.” It was a theme _ radical in this authoritarian state _ the pope repeatedly returned to during his travels across this island nation. At the same time, John Paul carefully said 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.
A stoic Castro, who saw the pontiff off shortly after 7 p.m. EDT, responded to the five days of chiding he and his regime have taken from the pope, defending the government. And he used the opportunity to again criticize the United States.”This place today, with its problems, is confronting the biggest power in the world like a small David,”he said.”It is trying to to survive against a Goliath, a nuclear Goliath, that is trying to stop our development.” Castro warmly thanked the pontiff for his visit,”for your all your expressions of affection to the Cuban people, for all your words, even those with which I might disagree.”But Castro promised no changes.
During scores of interviews with Cubans holding various viewpoints, however, the inevitability of some change in Cuba following the pope’s departure was agreed upon by virtually all.
Where they disagreed was whether it would weaken or strengthen Castro’s 39-year-old revolutionary government and whether the Cuban Catholic Church would emerge with greater civil and moral authority.”Little by little there will be change, both religious and social,”said the Rev. Jose Manuel Fernandez, a parish priest in Havana.”Fidel knows very well he can’t stop what will happen next, once the people have heard the pope express their deepest hopes.” One specific test of that change is likely to be the government’s response to the pope’s pleas that it release some or all of what church officials said were some 200 political prisoners in Cuban jails and Vatican officials said Sunday they had been promised a quick response by Cuban officials.
Fernandez and others who identified with the pope _ Catholic or otherwise _ tended to view his visit as widening the crack in Castro’s political wall _ one already severely weakened by the nearly 40-year-old U.S. economic embargo.
With Cuba’s one-time Soviet financial prop now gone, the Cuban economy is in shambles.
Castro was presumed to have gambled on allowing the pope to come here because of his need to undermine the embargo, thereby saving his regime through economic recovery.
John Paul has long opposed economic embargos _ an outgrowth of Catholic social teaching _ because of their impact on society’s poorest members, and he was as critical during his visit of the embargo as he was of Cuban government policies.
In remarks at the airport just before departing, the pontiff made his strongest anti-embargo comments yet, 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 indiscrimately, making it ever more difficult for the weakest to enjoy the bare essentials,”he said.
And U.S. bishops in Havana for the visit told reporters John Paul’s remarks put them in a stronger position to push for an end to the economic sanctions even though the White House said on Wednesday (Jan. 21) there would be no change in U.S. policy unless Castro acted first to move Cuba toward democracy.
In addition to criticizing the U.S. embargo, John Paul also pleased the socialist Castro by sharply criticizing”neo-liberal”capitalism, saying it”subordinates the human person to blind market forces and conditions the development of people on those forces.” Cubans who support the government said they expected to see some eventual easing of the embargo as a result of the pope’s coming here, the 81st pastoral visit outside Italy of his pontificate.
Juan Perez, a 25-year-old artist and self-described atheist, said the pope’s visit”has to help end the terrible embargo because he is an important man and people listen to him.”Perez came to the Havana Mass, he said, to”welcome”the pope because of”his ability to influence the world.” Reina Rosa Perez, an unemployed single mother of two, agreed:”Our commander (Castro) and the pope agree that no one should be poor. The embargo is our problem and this will help end it, hopefully someday soon.” In addition to his blunt criticism of the Cuban political structure, John Paul also repeatedly called for greater religious freedom during his visit _ especially for the Catholic Church.
At Sunday’s Mass he invoked Jose Marti, the father of Cuban independence, saying,”Every people needs to be religious. Not only for its own essence, but for its own practical benefit it needs to be religious.” While in Cuba, the 77-year-old 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. He also called for Catholic Church access to the national media.
Speaking with Cuban bishops later Sunday, John Paul said his call for government concessions”does not cause you to demand that the church should have a dominant or exclusive position in society, but rather she should occupy her rightful place in the midst of the people and have the possibility of adequately serving the brethren.”When the church demands religious freedom, she is not asking for a gift, a privilege or permission dependent on contingent situations, political strategies or the will of the authorities. Rather, she demands the effective recognition of an inalienable human right.” John Paul also told militant, anti-Castro exiles in the United States to ease their stance.
Cuba’s bishops, he said, should work with their American counterparts to encourage reconciliation between Cuban exiles in the United States and Cubans in their homeland.”To the extent that they (the exiles) consider themselves Cubans,”he said,”they, too, must cooperate, peacefully and in a constructive and respectful way, in the nation’s progress, avoiding useless confrontations …” How Castro will respond to the five-day visit remains uncertain.
The Rev. Jose Luis Castillejo, a 41-year-old Catholic priest, said that”short term there may not be any positive response to the requests of His Holiness, but long term there will be.” Carlos Trujillo, a 32-year-old attorney, only smiled when asked if he though Castro might accede to the pope’s requests.”This man,”said Trujillo, pulling at his chin, a common Cuban way of referring to the bearded Castro,”is very smart and cagey. He will give only what he needs to get what he wants.” Yet another aspect of the papal visit was John Paul’s continual moral admonitions.
Cubans have sky-high rates of out-of-wedlock children, divorce and abortion _ all of which the pope, in keeping with traditional Catholic teachings, has long and vocally denounced, and there was no exception in Cuba.
Sunday, for example, he noted that the attainment of social freedom without personal responsibility”imprisons man in his own egoism.” Albert Fernandez, a 48-year-old unemployed mechanic, who said he lost his job after he spoke out publicly following the 1996 shooting down of two planes flown by anti-Castro exiles over what exiles and U.S. officials insist was international waters, welcomed the pope’s comments on personal morality.”Cubans need that,”he said, holding the hand of his wife, Teresa, who also lost her job as a dentist.”More self-control is a first step toward changing this country.” The Rev. Pablo Oden Marichal, however, thinks the pope may be demanding too much of Cubans when he tells them to alter their morality while they still cannot afford many of life’s basics _ including raising many children.
Marichal, an Episcopal priest who coordinates Cuba’s Protestant Council of Churches, said changing behavior”is quite difficult in Cuba, particularly among the young people”who grew up in what until 1992 was an officially atheist nation.
Should the Cuban Catholic Church put great emphasis on moral issues for the immediate future, Marichal continued,”it could backfire and just drive people away.” But Archbishop John Foley, a Vatican spokesman who accompanied John Paul to Cuba, said the pope sees little leeway on moral issues.”The plan set forth by His Holiness in Cuba is more freedom and a return to God, but you don’t gain freedom by embracing materialism _ sexual or otherwise,”said Foley.”You can’t expect overnight conversion anywhere. The pope just casts the seeds of the word of God; some get trod under foot and some bloom.”
DEA END RIFKIN
