CUBA-RELIGION: Pope’s Visit Won’t Be a Cure-All

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Sep 4 1997 (IPS) - Roman Catholic leaders are warning Cubans that Pope John Paul II will not be bringing any “magic remedy” for their problems when he visits the island in January..

A pamphlet circulating among church-goers is clearly aimed at eliminating false expectations and hopes among those wanting to see the Pope’s visit as a panacea for Cuba’s economic troubles.

The speculation on the effects of the papal visit to the western hemisphere’s only socialist country began even before the trip was finalised. Fporeign analysts predicted enormous changes, ranging from a negotiated solution to the historical rift between Havana and Washington to political reforms by the government of Fidel Castro.

In Cuba, however, the run-up to the Pope’s visit has been marked by a government campaign seeking to strengthen socialism, accompanied by a crackdown on any kind of opposition.

The ruling Communist Party holds its congress next month and the Pope’s visit will coincide with the final phase of parliamentary elections.

Cuban authorities insist that the country’s security depends on consensus and unity at a time of mounting tension with the United States and in the seventh year of a devastating economic crisis.

Progress has been slow in meeting demands from the church for access to the media, permission for a number of priests and nuns to enter the country, and authorisation to broaden Church social work.

Nevertheless, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the general vicar of Havana and director of the city’s Archdiocesan Studies Centre, says “relations between the Catholic Church and the Cuban state are developing better today than at any other time.”

“Channels of communication are increasing, and are more fluent, and there is greater mutual comprehension but we must not be satisfied.”

One sign of the thaw in Church-State relations was the government’s suggestion that the Pope conduct mass in the Plaza of the Revolution – where the main public acts of the revolutionary process have been held.

But De Cespedes underlined that the visit would be only one more step in a necessary process of dialogue and reconciliation between the state and the church.

University lecturer Enrique Lopez, an expert on religious studies, says there has been an “extraordinary expansion” of religious sentiment in Cuba. Just last week, 2,000 young Catholics attended a gathering at the Jesus de Miramar church in Havana which ended with a concert and a one hour discussion chat between participants and Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

Practicing Catholics and Protestants in Cuba number about one million – a figure that excludes the followers of traditional Afro-Cuban religions, Lopez said.

“Christians periodically meet, legally or illegally, in around 7,000 places of worship or prayer – including 646 functioning Roman Catholic churches and chapels, 948 non-Catholic churches – most of them much smaller – 548 authorised Protestant ‘houses of worship’ and around 3,000 unauthorised ones,” he added.

“Houses of worship” began to appear in the late 1980s as an alternative to churches when funding or government authorisation for building chapels or churches was lacking.

In 1991, the fourth congress of Cuba’s Communist Party decided to admit church-goers to the party’s ranks, and designed a policy aimed at putting an end to all forms of religious discrimination. Constitutional reforms approved in 1992 changed the definition of the Cuban state from “atheist” to “lay”, thus establishing a neutral position on religion.

But Lopez said that the new concept of a “lay” state in Cuba “tends to subtly limit the social space of churches in a society where state property and state and Communist Party control over social installations and life in general are predominant.”

He said that not all authorities throughout Cuba are prepared to understand the current explosion of religious feeling, and the appearance of new churches and religious groups. Although most local bodies say the new, relaxed policy with respect to the churches and believers is irreversible, “they remain alert to any signs that could be considered suspicious,” he said.

And even as Church leaders prepare for the Pope’s visit, they have continued with criticism of the country’s economic, politicial and social situation.