CUBA: Pope’s Visit Set for January 1998

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jan 6 1997 (IPS) - The long-heralded visit by Pope John Paul II will take place one year from now when the Pontiff will arrive in Cuba, the only Communist country in the Western hemisphere, it was announced here.

The official Communist Party daily ‘Granma,’ reported the Pope would be received “with all due consideration and respect” when he came to Cuba in January 1998.

“The date, fixed by agreement between our authorities and the Vatican, was proposed by the papal leadership due to the many commitments and activities already scheduled for his Holiness in 1997,” it said.

The news was received jubilantly by thousands of Cuban Catholics attending mass in the Cathedral of Havana Friday to celebrate World Peace Day.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar for the diocese of Rome and president of the Italina Episcopal Synod who arrived in Cuba last week, revealed the timing of the Pope’s visit after he met Cuba’s President Fidel Castro.

“This year must be seen as a period of preparation with a view to the expected visit of the Holy Father,” said Ruini, adding that “the Cuban (Roman Catholic) Church is openly growing and undergoing strong renovation.”

John Paul II’s visit to the island was discussed when the Pope met Castro in Rome in November when the Cuban leader attended the World Food Summit.

The Cuban Catholic hierarchy stressed Saturday that the Papal travel diary and the events he has planned for Rome this year, means the journey to Cuba cannot take place before 1998.

“It would be too short notice for the journey to take place in the first six months of 1997, and the hottest months of our summer are not the best time for this either,” said Cardenal Jaime Ortega, archbishop of Havana, in a statement published in Granma.

Ortega said the Pope had a Brazilian visit arranged for October this year but after that trip he would return to Rome before making the direct Rome-Havana-Rome journey , with no other ports of call.

The visit will occur in the second half of January 1998, will last four or five days and will include mass in the sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity, some 900 km east of Havana.

As yet, it is not clear where the Pope will hold a mass in Havana – one of the most controversial points on the agenda. The Cuban authorities want it to be held inside a Catholic church, but the Church is appealing for an open space, allowing for a larger amount of people to attend.

The Pope’s arrival in Havana will put an end to a long list of disagreements, contradictions and conflicts which have marked relations between the State and the Catholic Church in Cuba for the last 30 years.

For years, the Cuban government considered any religious sentiment unscientific, backward-looking and even counter- revolutionary, with a strong emphasis on the Catholic faith. As for the Church, it firmly follows the Social Doctrine which is a firm enemy of Communism.

The differences, previously considered irreconcilable, started to recede this decade, and could be substituted by a pact based on mutual concessions.

The Cuban government hopes to win Vatican support for its campaign against the US blockade, and the Catholic Church is asking for greater religious freedom, entry visas for priests and nuns and access to the mass media. Pope John Paul II explicitly condemned the US policy against the island at the inauguration of the World Food Summit, only a few days prior to meeting Castro.

The Cuban government, meanwhile, decided early last month to grant entry visas to 40 members of religious orders from Colombia, Mexico and Spain.

Contacts between the authorities, representatives of the Church and Granma opened the way with articles signed by Cardinal Ortega.

Local observers said the government also wants the Catholic Bishops to stop taking public positions on events linked to the political, economic and social life of the country.