HAVANA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Pope John Paul's coming visit to Cuba could be seen as a "daring and courageous'' counterpoint to the U.S. policy of seeking to isolate Havana through its economic embargo, an official Cuban newspaper said on Sunday.
The youth communist weekly Juventud Rebelde sought to dispel the idea that the Jan. 21-25 visit could in some way represent a clash between President Fidel Castro's government and the Catholic Church in Cuba, saying it merely showed Havana's respect for all religions.
"The island, its government and people, doesn't seem worried, because the official invitation to His Holiness is within a policy of respect for all those who profess a religious belief, as protected by the Cuban constitution,'' the newspaper said.
The newspaper said the pope's trip was "daring and courageous'' because it "tends to be interpreted...as sympathy for the Carribean nation and condemnation for the U.S. blockade, even if its principle aim is pastoral and in support of the local church.''
The pope has made clear his opposition to Washington's 35- year-old economic embargo on the island, aimed at forcing Castro into political change.
Juventud Rebelde also said the pope "in numerous interventions, has coincided with Cuban positions, in regard to social, discriminatory, aspects of capitalism and its neo-liberal packages, the need for rich countries to write off even a part of poor countries' debt and the elimination of embargoes as a means of pressure of one country against another.''
It added his stay would serve to show a society that with firm attitudes against drugs, child prostitution and "other social evils, coincides with many of the ethical principles enunciated by the Pope.''
The papal visit was agreed at a historic meeting between the pope and Castro, 71, in November 1996 at the Vatican. The encounter underlined an improvement in recent years in relations—strained after Castro's 1959 revolution and the emergence of a socialist state.
Religious freedom is still largely confined to religious services and religious instruction in places of worship and a few charitable activities. The Cuban church would like to see its activities expanded to allow, for example, access to the state-run media.
Cuba's cardinal Jaime Ortega, addressing a mass in Havana, told Roman Catholics on Sunday their faith should always be held to in the face of those who merely seek order.
At an open-air service in the gardens of a Catholic-run home for the elderly in Havana's Cerro district, Ortega referred to those people who, like Pilate judging Jesus Christ and ordering his death, did not understand who Christ was.
"All he (Pilate) wanted to do was to conserve order,'' Ortega said in his homily.He said Pilate was a precursor of people who did not understand, who led "little organized lives without problems.''
Christians, on the other hand, knew the truth of their faith, and acted out their lives accordingly, even if sometimes they were silent about it, Ortega said.
The mass Sunday was one of a series of services in Havana the church has held to prepare for the pope's trip to Cuba, the only Spanish-speaking Latin American country the 77-year-old pontiff has not yet visited.
06:16 p.m Nov 23, 1997 Eastern