By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, May 13 (Reuters) - The head of Cuba's Roman Catholic Church, which is enjoying more freedom on the communist-run island since Pope John Paul's visit in January, has urged more changes by Fidel Castro's government.
In a magazine interview distributed on Wednesday, Cardinal Jaime Ortega also welcomed Washington's recent measures to ease some restrictions on Havana. But he called them only an ``initial response'' to the pontiff.
While in Cuba, the pope criticized both lack of freedom on the island, and the United States' 36-year economic embargo, urging ``Cuba to open up to the world, and the world to open up to Cuba.''
Interviewed by the monthly Catholic magazine Palabra Nueva, Ortega said recent diplomatic moves from Latin American and European nations showed the world was opening up to the island. ``But it is true that some people hope to see the opening of Cuba to the world more clearly defined,'' he added.
The release of more than 300 prisoners since the pope's visit was ``an initial sign of opening,'' said Ortega, who once served in a labor camp under Castro's government.
But ``as far as I understand, new gestures and meaningful attitudes are also becoming necessary,'' he added.
Although unspecific, the comments were Ortega's strongest public words in months and showed frustration with the slow pace of change in Cuba since the pope's visit.
Despite granting the releases, and giving more freedom for the church, Castro has shown little inclination since January toward far-reaching reforms to his one-party socialist system.
On the contrary, the 71-year-old leader has repeatedly pledged his faith in that system and told Cubans and foreign governments not to expect big changes.
Referring to Washington's decision in March to allow direct charter flights and cash remittances, and speed procedures for medical sales, to Cuba from the United States, Ortega said they ``constitute an initial response to the Holy Father's call.''
But he repeated the pope's condemnation of economic sanctions as ``unjust and ethically unacceptable.''
Ortega agreed the embargo was a factor in Cuba's current economic problems, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union around 1990. But in comments again aimed at the government, he added that ``errors committed in the economic sphere and the deficiencies in the economic system'' also played their part.
The pope's call on Cuba to open up to the world, he added, had also meant ``the overcoming of the mistakes and internal limits which, together with other factors, constitute the general situation of the national economy.''
Ortega was in agreement with Castro, however, in rejecting a proposal by the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), the most powerful exile lobby group in the United States, to send humanitarian aid while maintaining the embargo intact.
``It would have had an offensive aspect: reaffirming on the one hand the restrictions and isolation which are some of the causes of the difficulties, and on the other hand relieving some of those same difficulties,'' he said.
Ortega also pledged to continue calling for a ``frank and open dialogue'' with the Cuban government to discuss various ``difficult pending themes.''
His remarks this week contrasted with the low public profile and conciliatory tone the church has generally maintained since the pope's visit -- in a policy of trying to build quietly on concessions won without antagonizing the government.
The papal trip consolidated an apparent thawing toward religion in recent years by a government that had in the past nationalized church-run schools, expelled priests, abolished Christmas as a public holiday and promoted discrimination in the workplace against those professing religious beliefs.
12:15 05-13-98
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