By Frances Kerry
HAVANA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Cuba's Roman Catholic church said on Friday it has prepared two documentaries on Pope John Paul to prepare Cubans for a Papal visit to the island next January but still has not heard from the communist government if it can show them on state television.
Church officials said it would be a "very sad lack'' if the Cuban public were not shown the videos, two half-hour documentaries that mix scenes from the Pope's life, travels and words with shots of Cuba and comments by Cubans on their expectations for the Jan. 21-25 Papal visit.
At a presentation for reporters on the documentaries, Father Jose Felix Perez said the church would like them shown on state television but had not yet had a response from the government. Copies of the documentaries were currently with state television, he said.
Perez, who is director of the Cuban Bishops Conference's secretariat, added he hoped the issue would be resolved at the next meeting of a joint church-state commission preparing the Papal visit, on Dec. 10.
One documentary director, Carlos Leon, said there was a possiblity the films would be shown in part, adding any editing by state television would have to be in consultation with him and the other director, Caridad Abascal.
He added that showing the documentaries in an edited version, not in full, would be the "least attractive option.''
The documentaries, prepared by the Catholic Office of International Film in Cuba, focus largely on the personality of the Pope, seeking to explain who he is and to give an idea of some of his key concerns.
Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega describes him in one of the documentaries as "the pilgrim Pope'' who is also "the Pope of the young, of the sick, of the family.''
The documentaries have so far been shown in about 20 parishes to an audience totaling about 3,000 people. Leon said the church planned to make some 250 more copies so each priest on the island would be able to show the documentaries. But the audience would still be very limited.
Perez said there were other pending questions over access by the church to the state-controlled media ahead of and during the Papal visit. For example, it has been agreed Ortega will appear on state television to talk about the visit, but the date is not yet known.
And there is still no word whether the public masses the Pope will hold in Santa Clara, Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba and Havana on Jan. 22-25 will be transmitted live on television.
The church's concern to obtain access to state media ahead of the visit is in part a tacit acknowledgement that Cubans need to be better informed about the Pope. Although there is a dedicated core of Catholic churchgoers among Cuba's population of 11 million, many ordinary Cubans have little knowledge about the Pope.
The Pope's visit follows a historic meeting at the Vatican between the Pontiff and President Fidel Castro in November 1996 that marked a clear improvement in ties between the communist authorities and the Catholic church.
19:27 12-05-97