Hispanic leaders meet with Favalora

By APRIL WITT
Herald Staff Writer

Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora, under pressure from prominent Cuban Roman Catholics not to lead a planned pilgrimage to Cuba to see Pope John Paul II, might cancel the trip.

After Favalora met with a group of Hispanic Catholics -- bankers, business executives, lawyers and a publisher -- for more than an hour Thursday, a church spokesman said the archbishop is ``reconsidering'' whether to lead a cruise of pilgrims to Cuba and is praying about the matter.

``The archbishop is at this time reconsidering the situation,'' the very Rev. Tomas Marin, chancellor of the archdiocese, said in a news conference outside its headquarters in Miami Shores.

``He has seen the opposition that these good men presented to him,'' said Marin, flanked by the gray- and blue-suited business and professional leaders. ``The archbishop is taking it into consideration. The archbishop has asked for prayers in order to make a good decision for this community.''

Favalora's willingness to reconsider the cruise pleased its prominent critics, among them Horacio Aguirre, publisher of Diario las Americas, and Adolfo Henriques, president of NationsBank in Miami-Dade County.

Carlos A. Saladrigas, the Cuban-born president of a company called Vincam Group, read a statement from the group calling the meeting with the archbishop ``very cordial and constructive'' and promising to ``pray very hard so that God will help him make the right decision.''

But the threat of cancellation worried some other Catholics who had answered their archbishop's call to join the pilgrimage and bought nonrefundable tickets for a cruise to Cuba.

Sacrificed to buy ticket

Conchita Diaz, 56, a Hialeah housewife who was laid off from her job in May, scrimped to buy a $900 ticket for the archbishop's cruise to see Pope John Paul II during his papal visit to the homeland she fled in 1961.

``I even canceled a trip I was going to do for my birthday in October so I would have the money to go to Cuba for the pilgrimage,'' said Diaz, whose husband works for the Catholic Church. ``It's a sacrifice. I'm not a rich person. But I think it's very important for the Catholic Cubans in the island to see with their own eyes the support of the Catholics in exile. It's very important for me to be there, pray with them and show them that we support them spiritually.

``If the archbishop cancels the trip, I will not feel angry,'' she said. ``I will feel sad. I will be praying that God will be the one really inspiring his decision.''

Widow wants to go

Elly Chovel, a Coral Gables widow left Cuba as a child in 1962 and was supported through the Archdiocese of Miami and Operation Peter Pan. She recently bought the cheapest ticket she could get for the archbishop's cruise to Cuba -- $599 -- and was stricken Thursday at the thought that he might cancel it in response to critics.

``All those people came with nothing and they have been blessed with the opportunity to become powerful and wealthy,'' said Chovel, a Realtor. ``To use that power and wealth to do this? There is an undertone of threat that if the archbishop doesn't do what they want, they could take their finances away from the church.

``If the Catholic Church here wants to go and pray in Cuba, and some of us feel in our hearts that this is what they should do, how can anyone condemn them?''

Harsh criticism of trip

For months, Favalora has planned to lead a pilgrimage of Catholics from South Florida and nationwide on a four-day, Miami-to-Havana cruise hear Pope John Paul II celebrate an outdoor Mass on Jan. 25. The trip is both to support the pontiff and show solidarity with Cuban Catholics who have maintained their faith under an oppressive political regime and are experiencing a religious revival on the island.

Some Cuban exiles have harshly criticized the cruise. They vow never to return to the island while Castro is still in power or say they fear the archbishop's pilgrimage could somehow be manipulated to legitimize Castro's regime. Ticket sales for the cruise, while picking up, are lower than anticipated. The cruise can accommodate 1,000 pilgrims. As of this week, the archdiocese had 404 confirmed passengers, about half as many as it needs to break even.

The Archdiocese paid Norwegian Cruise Line in advance for the trip. Although church officials would not comment on how much they paid, the cruise tickets range in price from $599 to $1,399 per person based on the accommodations.

If the trip to Cuba is canceled for any reason, the church will not refund the tickets but likely cruise to a different destination such as the Bahamas.
Two groups sent letters

Last month, more than 20 prominent Hispanic Catholics who belong to a business organization called the Round Table sent a letter to Favalora asking him to cancel the Cuba trip. All but a few who signed the letter decrying the trip are Cuban-Americans. Among them was Jose C. Cancela, general manager of WSCV-Channel 51 and the volunteer chair of the archbishop's biggest annual fund-raising drive, which provides church aid to the poor in South Florida.

In addition to the group of businessmen, another group of Cuban Catholics on Tuesday sent a strongly worded letter to Favalora calling the cruise ``morally wrong'' and saying it's an indication that Cubans have no real decisionmaking power in the Archdiocese.

Favalora responded to the first letter by inviting those who signed it to meet with him, and other top church officials, on Thursday.

Optimism from two sides

``I'm optimistic'' that the archbishop will cancel the cruise, said Rafael Peñalver, a lawyer who helped draft the letter to Favalora and attended the meeting. ``If this ship comes and goes, the Cuban Church will be left empty-handed. We pledged to the archbishop to work in a meaningful and more permanent way to assist the Cuban Church. I'm hopeful.''

Chovel is hopeful, too. But she's hoping the archbishop will not cancel his pilgrimage to Cuba.

``If the archbishop asked me, I would tell him that he represents directly to us the apostles,'' Chovel said. ``He is divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit and he knows exactly what to do.''