VATICAN CITY, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul, looking back over another globetrotting year, said on Tuesday his historic trip to Cuba last January had stirred a spiritual revival there.
``How can I fail to recall the visit, so eagerly awaited, to Cuba, where the presence of St Peter's successor aroused so much enthusiasm and stimulated a promising burst of spiritual renewal?'' the Pope said in a speech to Rome clergymen.
Church leaders in Cuba have enjoyed better relations with the state since the Pope's trip in January, which consolidated an official thawing toward the Roman Catholic Church after decades of marginalisation.
Cuba's ruling Communist Party this month proposed to reinstate December 25 as a holiday, nearly three decades after abolishing the Christmas break to keep islanders working in sugar fields. The Vatican quickly welcomed the decision.
In his speech, the 78-year-old Polish pontiff also cast his mind back over his 1998 visits to Nigeria, Austria and Croatia and looked ahead to his planned trip to Mexico next month.
That visit, from January 22-28, will also take in St Louis in the United States, where the most travelled pontiff in history is expected to meet President Bill Clinton.
Taking stock of the year's evangelical activities, the Pope picked out the controversial canonisation of Edith Stein, a nun gassed at Auschwitz who became what the Vatican believes is the first Jewish-born Catholic saint since the time of the Apostles.
``I should like...to recall Sister Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein, a Jewish woman and a philosopher, a nun, a martyr.
``In a century as troubled as ours, she appears before us to invite us to enter the narrow door of wisdom and acceptance of the Cross...'' he said.
Over the whole of 1998, the Pope received a staggering 1,946,050 faithful in general audiences, special audiences and ceremonies, the Vatican revealed on Tuesday. That represented a sharp increase on 1997, when 1,192,580 people were received by the pontiff.
09:45 12-22-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.