Pope reached out to Cuba, made history

By MARTIN McREYNOLDS
Herald Staff Writer

Sometimes history really does unfold before your eyes.

Ask those who were in Havana, Santa Clara, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba over the past five days -- or watched on television in Miami and around the world.

A stooped 77-year-old man, unsteady on his feet and slow of speech, strode into the heart of a troubled nation and spoke words that shook it and shook it again.

The words were carefully chosen. Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church, had insisted that his mission was pastoral, not political. In workable Spanish, he delivered his message in homilies before huge crowds and in talks to small groups that ranged from bishops to AIDS patients.

The phrasing was subtle but the meaning was clear wherever he went -- a call for religious and political freedom, personal moral responsibility and reconciliation between Cubans on the island and in exile. He made a strong pitch for the revival of the church in Cuba after decades of repression. And he criticized the world's Communists and capitalists alike for emphasizing material welfare while failing to eliminate poverty and failing to recognize humankind's need for spiritual enrichment.

It was a near-miracle that the pope even arrived in Cuba, after years of quiet negotiations between the Vatican and President Fidel Castro. By the time the visit was announced in December 1996, the pontiff's health was clearly deteriorating, even as he continued traveling abroad. No longer able to kneel and kiss the ground on arrival as in the past, he had soil of the host country placed in a container and held up to his lips.

His arrival in Havana on Wednesday followed the script of 80 previous foreign visits, but was marked by his call for greater freedoms in Cuba. John Paul repeated his opposition to the U.S. embargo against the island but had pointed remarks for Castro, who had greeted him warmly. ``May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba,'' the pope said.

In a visit to Santa Clara, in the sugar-cane heartland, John Paul stressed family values Thursday. He called for Christian education and attacked abortion and divorce, both common in Cuba. Back in Havana that night, Castro, 71, and the pope met privately for 50 minutes and exchanged gentle quips about growing old. The pope asked Castro to free prisoners, including those jailed for acts of conscience.

During a Mass in the central city of Camaguey on Friday, John Paul urged young Cubans to avoid the emptiness of ``alcohol, the abuse of sex, drug use [and] prostitution.'' That evening, he met with intellectuals in Havana and stressed the Christian character of democracy.

In the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba on Saturday, a high point of emotion was reached when the pontiff, his hands shaking, placed a gold crown on the head of the small, dark-skinned statue of Our Lady of Charity, Cuba's patron saint. In his homily, the pope talked about links between the church and patriotism. Santiago Archbishop Pedro Meurice spoke more sharply, aiming directly at the Communist government when he said too many Cubans ``have confused patriotism with a party.''

With Castro in attendance Sunday, the pope delivered a farewell Mass before hundreds of thousands of people in Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion, the focal point of celebrations of the 1959 Cuban Revolution. He called Cubans to ``new paths'' of reconciliation but warned against embracing the egoism and inequalities of unrestrained capitalism.

His body weak but his spirit unflagging, the pope had braved tropical heat and the rigors of an exhausting schedule, driving himself to reach out to Cuba's people on the island and scattered abroad.