By APRIL WITT
Herald Staff Writer

Some of the most prominent Hispanic Catholics in South Florida -- including big church fund-raisers -- are asking Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora to cancel a cruise to Cuba to see Pope John Paul II, calling the planned pilgrimage ''morally wrong,'' divisive and insensitive to Cubans.

More than 20 bank officers, business owners, attorneys and opinion leaders, among them the chairman of the Archdiocese of Miami's biggest annual fund-raising drive, sent Favalora a letter recently asking him to cancel the cruise and asking:

''Why has the Church that we love so much been so insensitive to our pain on this issue? This is the Church that we have helped build,'' the letter said.

Even as opposition to the January religious pilgrimage to Havana grows and becomes more organized, ticket sales are increasing.

Favalora is scheduled to meet this morning with several Hispanic Catholics who signed the critical letter. Most of them are Cuban Americans and members of the Round Table, a Hispanic business organization.

On Tuesday, a second, larger group of Cuban Catholics -- from college professors who attend daily Mass to attorneys and civic activists -- sent an even more strongly worded letter to Favalora calling the cruise ''morally wrong'' and saying it's an indication that Cubans have no real decision making power in the Archdiocese of Miami.

For devout Catholics to be in vocal opposition to their church ''is a torment,'' said Rafael Peñalver, a Cuban-American lawyer who co-authored both letters. Peñalver has served on the board of St. Thomas University and once received a papal medal of honor for his service to the church.

''The Archdiocese of Miami is the one that received us here when we were penniless,'' he said. ''We all went to Catholic schools and are very close to the church. . . . And yet, on something that affects us so uniquely, the archdiocese simply did not take us into consideration. We can't stand silently by. This cruise ship is a symbol of frivolity. It is creating division among Cubans.''

Cancellation not expected

Miami Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Wenski, who is organizing the Miami pilgrimage to see the Pope, said he does not expect Favalora to cancel the cruise, but added that church leaders will listen openly to these critics as they have to others.

Archbishop Favalora is planning to lead the pilgrimage of Catholics from South Florida and nationwide on a four-day, Miami-to-Havana cruise to hear the Pope celebrate an outdoor Mass on Jan. 25. Church leaders have said consistently that they are making the trip both to support the Holy Father and show solidarity with Cuban Catholics who have struggled to maintain their faith under an oppressive political regime that has tried to eradicate it.

Ticket sales take off

Ticket sales for the cruise aboard the Norwegian Majesty had been very slow because of the high cost, intense opposition to the cruise among exiles in Miami, and the Cuban government's mixed signals about whether it will let the ship dock in Havana.

But the number of tickets sold has doubled in the past five days, and 404 people have now confirmed berths, said Nina Meyer of Vision Travel, the Coral Gables travel agency handling the cruise.

Many of the most recent ticket sales are to priests and people who live outside the Archdiocese of Miami, she said. She estimated that only about one-third of the 400 ticketholders are Cuban Americans, although she said she did not have precise demographic information available late Wednesday.

To break even on the cruise, the church needs to sell another 400 tickets, both Wenski and Meyer said. The cruise can accommodate about 1,000 people.

'Some might hold back'

Cuban Catholics who oppose the cruise say they want to make sure that none of the money they put in the collection plate on Sunday goes to underwrite the pilgrimage. Jose C. Cancela, the general manager of WSCV-Channel 51 and the volunteer chairman of the Archdiocese of Miami's big annual fund drive, is among those who signed the Round Table letter asking Favalora to cancel the cruise. Cancela was traveling Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.

''We are not in any way saying we are going to boycott the church economically,'' said Carlos A. Saladrigas, chairman of the Vincam Group, another member of the Round Table who signed the letter. ''That's not the way we like to do things. We don't want to do anything that would hurt the church. Having said that, it's an individual choice and some individual might resent the cruise and hold back.''

''As a Cuban Catholic, I am very hurt,'' said Saladrigas, who has served on the board of Catholic institutions including Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami and St. Thomas University.

''This decision was made by the hierarchy of the church in total oblivion to the feelings and concerns of the Cuban community here in South Florida. I think the way this has been handled shows a tremendous amount of arrogance and I think arrogance has very little room in the church.''

'Significant rift' predicted

Saladrigas is among those planning to meet with Favalora today. ''We cannot force the archbishop to do anything,'' he said. ''But he has to accept the fact that this is going to create a significant rift in the community and he's going to live with the consequences of that rift for many years to come.''

Adolfo Henriques, president of NationsBank in Miami-Dade County, is also among the critics who will meet with Favalora today. Although he doesn't expect the archbishop to change his mind about the cruise, he hopes to ''sensitize'' him to the concerns of many Cubans, he said.

''Simply the message of taking a cruise to a regime that stripped us of all of our human rights, that changed the lives of all of the Cuban exiles, where we were no longer able to exercise our God-given rights in our homeland, to me it is an absolute insult,'' Henriques said. ''It is still the same regime with the same communist doctrine that is in power today.''

Church defends trip

Church officials took pains Wednesday not to escalate the dispute by offering a point-by-point refutation of the criticism. They did, however, stress that Cubans do have power in the church. Most top officials of the archdiocese -- two of three auxiliary bishops and the chancellor -- are Cuban Americans.

They said it was a moral imperative for the archdiocese to lead a pilgrimage as a sign of solidarity with the universal Catholic Church.

''This is a spiritual pilgrimage to be with the brother and sister in Cuba who share our faith,'' said Mary Ross Agosta, director of communications for the archdiocese. ''Many times before, the church has done things that aren't necessarily very popular, but if we feel it needs to be done, we will do it.''