By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Feb 11 1999 (IPS)

Conflict between Cuba and the United States will flavour the Interamerican Bishops Meeting, to be held from February 14 to 16 of this month here, commemorating the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s visit to the island.

Although its not on the agenda, the conflict could become a leading issue for unofficial and private discussion, stated Jose Felix Perez Riera, vice secretary of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, in declarations to the foreign press here.

Perez Riera added that the life of the Church and its evangelising mission “cannot affect ignorance of this context,” which has influenced Cuban society for the last 40 years.

The United States has imposed an economic and trade embargo on the island irrespective of condemation by the Cuban Catholic Church and John Paul II himself.

This meeting of the continents Catholic hierarchy, held every two years and now in its 27th session, will bring five cardinals and 25 bishops from throughout the region together in the Cuban capital, including nine US citizens and six Canadians.

Workshops will be held in the Palco hotel, close to the Convention Palace, where the National Assembly will hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday 15 to discuss approval of a new penal code with more serious sanctions for crime.

From Sunday 14, following mass in Havana Cathedral to inaugurate the meeting, the Bishops will discuss the Synod of America held in late 1997 and will evaluate the Pope’s visit to Cuba in January last year.

The outcome of the Synod, dealt with in a document entitled “Apostolic Exhortation,” was delivered by John Paul II in Mexico, during his visit to this country last January. The text criticises “neoliberalism” and the globalisation process, for the injustices it has generated.

Globalisation gives absolute priority to the economic principle, with consequences like “the destruction of nature, increasing differences between rich and poor and unfair competition which puts poor nations in a situation of increasingly accentuated inferiority,” said the document.

The Cuban government received the document especially well, as it also criticises the burden of foreign debt and considers trade and drug consumption “serious threats to the social structures.”

At the closure of an international congress which brought 5,000 teachers together in Havana, president Fidel Castro made several references to the document of the American Catholic Church.

The mentioned points of agreement, and the respectful treatment Castro offered the Pope during his visit to Cuba, make it seem possible the president could attend the meeting of American bishops.

Although the vice secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba said a meeting with Castro was not actually on the agenda, he did not rule out the possiblity.

The meeting, being held for the first time in Cuba with no final declaration expected, will dedicate a morning to discussing the challenges of the Catholic Church in the Caribbean country following the papal visit.

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