HAVANA -- His voice soft but his politics as aggressively anti-communist as ever, Pope John Paul II arrived on a historic visit Wednesday to tell President Fidel Castro that Marxist revolutions mean ``hatred, revenge and victims'' and call on Cuba to ``open itself to the world.''

Throngs of Roman Catholics and Castro supporters stood 50 deep along the papal motorcade route into Havana as fathers hoisted children on shoulders and church bells pealed to welcome the pope on his first visit to the last bastion of communism in the West.

In a dramatic encounter between two men in their 70s who have strongly influenced the course of history in the second half of the 20th Century, Castro greeted the pope with an almost child-like wave when he appeared at the door of his Alitalia jetliner.

Using a cane, John Paul walked slowly to the Cuban president and gripped his hands warmly, then waved at the crowd of Communist Party leaders, church dignitaries, foreign diplomats and Catholic faithful who turned out to meet him.

Castro welcomed the visitor with a politically charged speech accusing Washington of committing ``genocide'' against Cuba. At the same time Castro tried to align his revolution with the Catholic Church. ``We think alike'' on a host of world calamities ranging from child prostitution to hunger, from outrageous national debts to racism and drugs, Castro said.

John Paul replied with a strong call to Castro and Cuba to ``provide everyone with an atmosphere of freedom, of mutual trust, of social justice and lasting peace.'' He added: ``May Cuba, with all its magnificent possibilities, open itself to the world.''

Along his popemobile's 10-mile route from the airport to downtown Havana, exuberant throngs estimated in the hundreds of thousands lined the streets as groups broke into hymns and dances under a sharp and clear Caribbean winter sun.

At St. Catherine of Sienna Church, on the corner of Paseo and 23rd Street, fervor mounted as the crowd waited for the motorcade. When the popemobile finally appeared, people burst into tears and shook with joy. Strangers hugged and kissed. Some screamed at the top of their lungs: ``Glory to God . . . It's a miracle.''

Church volunteers with megaphones shouted to the crowds ``The pope is with us'' and ``Bless the Cuban people.'' Many people waved small Vatican and Cuban flags, and still others carried balloons that read ``Welcome John Paul.''

Silence greeted Castro's speech as it was carried over parish loudspeakers and radios around Havana, but a wave of applause swept the streets when the pontiff started speaking, journalists reported. No political chants or signs were heard or seen.

`Respectful' welcome

Castro had urged all his supporters to turn out for a ``respectful'' welcome to the pope, and on Wednesday it was impossible to separate those who came out to welcome the pope for religious or political reasons from those who merely followed Castro's instructions.

While this is John Paul II's 81st trip abroad, and Cuba is the 119th country he has visited, this trip has generated more interest than any since he visited his native, then-Communist-ruled Poland in 1979, shortly after he was elected pope.

Even before his jetliner touched down in Cuba, the pontiff had blasted Castro, communism and the U.S. embargo of Cuba, telling reporters on board that he planned to talk to Castro, after 39 years in power, ``man to man.''

``Unlike the revolution supported by . . . Lenin, the revolution of Christ means the revolution of love. The other revolution is that of hatred, revenge, that of victims,'' he said during a 20-minute midflight news conference.

`Everything about truth'

When he meets Castro again this afternoon, the pontiff added, he wants to listen to the Cuban leader ``tell me everything about truth. I want him to tell me that truth, his truth as president, as man and, as he puts it, as commander of the revolution.''

Asked if he planned to raise the issue of Cuba's human rights abuses, the pontiff answered:

``You know very well what my thinking is on human rights. [It is] the same thing I said in Poland and in many other countries since 1979.

``Human rights are fundamental rights and the foundation of all civilization. I carried that belief with me to Poland in my confrontation . . . with a totalitarian communist system,'' he added.

While he hoped his visit would lead to ``advances in the area of human liberty, in the dignity of the person,'' the pontiff said, it was too early to predict the results. ``There is a saying: Wait and see.''

`We're not angels'

Asked about Castro's recent comment that he and the pontiff were both ``angels at the service of the poor,'' the pope retorted: ``We're not angels. We're men.''

He was softer on Cuba's late revolutionary hero Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara, saying he was ``convinced that Che wanted to serve the poor'' but adding: ``Che Guevara now finds himself in the Lord's court. Let Him be allowed to judge him.''

John Paul, who has traditionally opposed all economic sanctions against countries, also said he wants Washington to ``change, change'' its 36-year-old trade embargo on Cuba. ``Maybe . . . Cuba and the United States are looking for a better future,'' he said.

The head of the U.S. State Department's Cuba Desk, in an unusual news conference in Cuba, said Washington ``does not have exaggerated expectations that the papal visit will produce fundamental changes.''

``But if there are fundamental changes after the pope's visit, then there will be reciprocity,'' added Michael Ranneberg. ``The cause of Cuba's problems is that Cuba has fallen into a communism that simply does not work.''

Trouble-free ceremony

The hourlong ceremony welcoming John Paul at Jose Marti International Airport went off without a hitch, a sign of the intense labor by the Vatican to bring off the historic encounter with a nation where Catholics have long been repressed.

Seventy-seven years old and afflicted with what is reported to be Parkinson's disease, the pope did not bend down on arrival for his traditional kiss of the soil that welcomes him and instead kissed a box of Cuban soil brought to him by four children wearing white guayaberas and dresses.

Vatican and Cuban flags dangling from light posts lined the papal route from the airport to the Vatican ambassador's residence, where the pope will sleep each of his four nights in Cuba.

At one site, a vendor gleefully sold the day's issue of Communist Party newspaper Granma, which bore the headline: Welcome Your Holiness, John Paul II. Joked the vendor: ``One pope is coming to see the other pope.''

Security measures remained relatively low-key, with no more police or soldiers on the streets than usual and most agents wearing civilian clothes.

Stringent security

Only hotels and centers frequented by foreign journalists in town to cover the visit appeared to be under stepped-up security.

``With all the foreign press around, the last thing the government wants is a bomb blast,'' said a European diplomat, recalling the string of bombs that rocked tourism centers last year.

``We have already taken all the [precautionary] measures, naturally, and this will not happen again,'' Tourism Minister Osmany Cienfuegos told a news conference Wednesday.

The pope's arrival has triggered a simmering debate over whether Castro has co-opted the pope's visit and outfoxed the Vatican by ordering all his supporters to attend papal events.

Credit for any large turnouts at Masses may be claimed by the man who until 1992 maintained atheism as Cuba's official doctrine. Numerous Catholics lost their jobs and suffered persecution at the hands of the state.

Castro's turnabout has angered some Catholics, who would have preferred smaller but more religiously oriented turnouts.

``What's going to stand out?'' asked Oscar Cruz, a 70-year-old retired accountant. ``That the plaza was packed because Fidel Castro invited the people to go greet the pope? The glory is all his.''