MANAGUA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Roman Catholic Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Nicaragua said on Monday he plans to be in Cuba next month for Pope John Paul's visit, despite published reports he had been black-listed by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
"I'll go. I was invited by the Bishops' Conference of Cuba,'' Obando told Reuters on Monday. "I have not received any letter saying I cannot come.''
Obando is highly influential in Nicaraguan politics and well-known for his outspoken opposition to Nicaragua's Cuban-backed Sandinista regime during the 1980s. He has twice played host to the Pope in Managua.
Cuba is the only Latin American country the Pope has not visited.
Obando, who returned from Rome on Monday, said he learned from journalists in Miami and Managua of published reports that he and three other church leaders had been barred from accompanying the Pope in the communist-ruled island nation.
But Obando also said he had not yet sought official permission to enter the country.
Castro, the undisputed leader of Cuba since coming to power nearly 39 years ago, said in a speech on Saturday that "any pilgrim'' was welcome to see the Pope in Cuba, provided that he or she had a visa.
The Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa on Sunday cited stories in the Washington Times and U.S. Cuba Policy Report reporting Cuba's "secret list'' of banned clergyman, which also included Franciscan priest Miguel Loredo of New York, Miami Bishop Augustin Roman and Miami priest Francisco Santana.
Eddy Montenegro, vicar-general of the Managua Archdiocese, told La Prensa over the weekend that Obando was "honored'' to have been snubbed by Castro.
Obando said Montenegro apparently was responding to published reports and did not have first-hand knowledge that such a decision was taken by Cuba.
The Cuban government as of Monday had not given any outward indication that it would block certain clergymen from seeing the Pope.