Before papal visit, Vatican gets tough on Cuba

Vatican officials have quietly begun to express disagreements with the Cuban government as Pope John Paul II prepares for his visit to the island next January.

Though scattered and relatively indirect so far, the criticisms contrast with the warm expressions of good will that surrounded the pontiff's meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro in Rome last November.

Leading up to that meeting, Vatican officials repeatedly stated the pontiff's long-time opposition to economic embargoes, such as the one Washington has maintained on Cuba since 1962, and the Helms-Burton Act.

Castro at the time extended an official invitation to John Paul II to make his first visit to Cuba, where the Catholic Church is just beginning to recover from decades of restrictions by a government once officially atheist.

Vatican officials say arrangements for the Jan. 21-25 visit are going well, though more slowly than expected. A February visit by protocol chief Roberto Tucci to Havana to discuss the trip was postponed until May.

But the more recent criticisms from the Vatican shows that sectors within the Holy See remain concerned that the church not appear too friendly or forgiving toward Castro, said Vatican officials.

The latest attack came last week, when the Vatican's FIDES news agency, in a brief dispatch on the papal trip, said the Cuban system ``in the name of dictatorship has produced only economic and human failure.''

So popular is the church becoming in Cuba that police ``have increased the deployment of spies and collaborators inside Catholic groups,'' said the dispatch, adding that Cubans saw the pontiff as ``a paladin for human rights.''

Earlier, the chief administrator of Vatican City, Cardinal Rosalio Jose Castillo Lara, had told an Italian newspaper in an interview that Castro needed to publicly admit the errors of his ways.

``Castro has not only brought tyranny and dictatorship, but also a political system very damaging to the church,'' said the Venezuela native. ``He should know the church will not easily forget all his evil doings.''

After Cuban diplomats complained, the Vatican press office issued a statement saying the newspaper's headline on the article -- Castro Must Repent -- was inaccurate but not denying the thrust of his comments.

At about the same time, Cardinal Camilo Ruini, head of the Italian Bishops' Conference, was making a Jan. 2-7 visit to Cuba during which he praised recent progress in Cuba-Vatican relations and the government's decision to open more space for Catholic activities.

But even as he spoke of reconciliation and good will at each of his three major stops in Cuba, Ruini also repeatedly raised the issues of human rights and government attempts to silence dissidents.

``The repression of diverse opinion can give the impression of peace,'' Ruini said in one homily. The church, he added in another, ``has the duty to help answer the urgent demands for human rights that arise from the people.''

Pope John Paul II remains committed to improved relations with Castro's government, knowledgeable Vatican sources said. But Cubans can expect more direct statements on their situation as the pope's trip approaches.

Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald