Pope's visit stirs hope in Cuba

Herald Staff Report

HAVANA -- Hortensia Jimenez is a lifelong Catholic. But it is her stomach as much as her faith that is making her excited about Pope John Paul II's arrival in Cuba this week.

``Because the pope is coming, they will be giving us a half-pound more cooking oil and a half-pound more beef. They will also give us a bar of soap per person!'' she says excitedly. ``And when he arrives, there'll be a pound of chicken.''

Joy over John Paul's arrival Wednesday for a five-day historic visit has spread. Faithful Catholics are elated, and many Cubans, like the 72-year-old Jimenez, are pleased over the small improvements in life that are coinciding with the papal visit.

Food rations have gone up slightly since the beginning of the year to coincide with National Assembly elections and the papal visit.

But as the pope's arrival draws nearer, some Cubans are expecting far larger improvements than simply additional food. While Roman Catholic prelates remind followers that the pope's trip is pastoral, not political, some Cubans hope warmer Cuban ties with the Vatican somehow will lead to better living conditions, fewer blackouts, and even changes in U.S. policy toward President Fidel Castro's communist regime.

``We think he has the influence so that the [U.S.] embargo can be lifted,'' said Margarita Rodriguez, a 24-year-old pharmaceutical laboratory assistant.

``Everyone is really hopeful about the visit,'' said Jacquelin Gomez Pos, a young mother who works as an undertaker. ``They hope he can resolve many things in this country. Not so much lifting the embargo as getting us more food, more medicines and stopping the violence.'' She said her neighborhood had been gripped by street crimes such as purse and necklace snatchings.

``Many people expect the overall situation to improve after the pope's visit,'' said Jose, a civil engineer who declined to give his last name. ``They think he will bring a message that will lead to a relaxation of the political environment.''

Other Cubans voice more cool realism.

``The pope isn't going to come knocking on my door to ask me what I need,'' said a 40-year-old father with three brothers in Miami. Another man, an electrical engineer, scoffed at the visit, saying Castro designed it to lead foreigners to believe there is more of an opening in Cuba than there is.

``I think this is a manipulation,'' he said. ``It is so people think there is democracy here when there isn't any.''

Tempering expectations

Both church prelates and government officials have warned Cubans against expecting anything beyond what scores of other papal trips around the world have offered.

``The pope's visit is not to provoke change. It is simply pastoral. Changes will come from within,'' said the Rev. Jose Felix Perez Riera, adjunct secretary to the ruling Catholic Bishops' Conference. Several other priests said enough reforms have occurred in Cuba in recent years that they hope for as gradual an evolution as possible.

``I hope there are no spectacular changes. The church wants slow change,'' said the Rev. Manuel Jimenez, a Spanish parish priest at Havana's Sacred Heart Church. ``The church doesn't expect that tomorrow we'll be able to open private Catholic schools, or be given a television channel. It would be enough if instead of this photocopy machine we could have a small printing press.''

Repression relaxed

Other church officials noted that decades of repression of the Catholic Church since Castro's 1959 rise to power have relaxed notably since 1992, when atheism as a doctrine was lifted. One of the Vatican's aims is simply to educate Cubans about Catholicism in a nation where the church has no access to mass media, said Gustavo Andujar, a member of the Cuban church's organizing committee for the papal trip.

``We are in a country where many, many people have no religious references whatsoever,'' he said. Many clerics say they hope the pontiff's visit remains as largely apolitical as possible given the natural contrasts between the Polish-born John Paul II, who was instrumental in bringing down the Iron Curtain in much of eastern Europe, and Castro, the hard-bitten communist.

``The church wants this to be a strictly pastoral visit, that nothing happens, and that it is not politicized,'' another Spanish parish priest said. Cuban authorities also say that they expect little other than the arrival of an illustrious figure who they treat as a head of state.

In a six-hour televised presentation last Friday, Castro scoffed at the notion that John Paul II would somehow alter Cuba's communist system.

``I have read huge quantities of news dispatches in recent days, and how many illusions are built up in the desperation to make the pope's trip seem irresistible, like a sword of fire to annihilate Cuban socialism and communism. What they most repeat is that `The pope will visit the last bastion of communism,' '' Castro said.

Clerics encouraged

Clerics said they were encouraged by some remarks by Castro, in which he explained why his government had invited the pope and why hard-line communists should attend the masses during his five-day trip. While calling on Cubans to turn out for the open-air liturgies, he ordered them not to hold up placards, shout slogans or make any sort of unruly scene.

The admonition quelled fears that pro-Fidel forces might try to upstage the pontiff if he offers any criticism of the Cuban political system. Those fears are genuine. Castro's supporters chafe at the notion that the pope may condemn aspects of the 39-year-old revolution.

``He better not come to criticize,'' said Barbaro Fayat, a retired military officer. ``The pope is the representative of God on Earth. He should come to toast us for peace.''