Associated Press
Saturday, December 26, 1998; Page A31

HAVANA, Dec. 25—Cuba granted the Roman Catholic Church a rare Christmas wish today: authorization to send a national holiday greeting over government-controlled radio.

Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Cuba's top Catholic leader, received permission to read the message Christmas afternoon over the music station called Radio Musical Nacional, government and church sources confirmed.

The authorization was a sign of continued warming relations between Fidel Castro's government and the church nearly one year after Pope John Paul II visited the communist island.

The return of Christmas as a permanent holiday "is a joy for the church and for the Cuban people," Ortega said in the 15-minute message. "Now let us hope that it doesn't become a day of an imported Santa Claus," echoing the concerns expressed by church and Communist Party leaders alike that the day could become quickly commercialized.

"Let us not talk of beautiful festivities but of Jesus Christ."

The government's rare authorization of a nationally broadcast message by the Catholic leader came a month after the government declared that Christmas Day would become an official permanent holiday. It granted Christmas as a one-day holiday last year as a favor to the pope before his January 1998 visit.