By Pascal Fletcher
HAVANA, June 27 (Reuters) - An envoy of Pope John Paul II urged Roman Catholic teachers in Cuba on Saturday to circumvent official curbs on religious education by creating new, informal ways to spread the Church's message on the communist-ruled island.
``We should not be paralysed by the restrictions of the current moment,'' Cardinal Pio Laghi told a meeting of more than 200 Catholic teachers and educators at a Havana church.
``While you still do not have access to schools and universities, choose other paths,'' he added.
Laghi, who heads the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Vatican body responsible for Catholic teaching around the world, was beginning a four-day visit to Cuba.
The cardinal told his audience that while the Cuban Catholic Church was not currently able to use the island's government-controlled system of schools and universities to disseminate Catholic teaching, this should not stop it from trying to get its message across.
``The high level of public education allows us to invent new paths, sometimes not formal, for Catholic education,'' he said.
Laghi, who was scheduled to meet Cuban education ministers during his visit, said that Church groups, including lay organisations, could take part in this educational mission.
His words came as bold encouragement for existing Catholic study groups and workshops that already exist on the island, independently of the state-controlled education system.
No kind of religious education is currently taught at state schools in Cuba, where Catholic schools and universities were all nationalised along with other private teaching establishements after the 1959 Cuban revolution.
So far, Cuba's communist government has given no indication that it is ready to relinquish state control over education.
But the Church is permitted to operate its own catechism classes and is running two seminaries to train priests.
On several occasions in his address to the teachers, Laghi cited the words of the Pope, who during a historic visit to Cuba in January had urged the government to open up the education system to Catholic teaching.
``The lay state need not fear, but should rather appreciate, the moral and educational contribution of the Church,'' the cardinal said, quoting the Pontiff's words in January.
He took pains to stress what he presented as the beneficial influence of Catholic teaching, for example, ``for the improvement of social living and order, through raising the qualities of citizens' ideals and their deeper motivations.''
Laghi, who arrived in Havana Friday night, told reporters earlier that he had come to Cuba as an envoy of the Pope to extend the same message of ``peace and hope'' that the Pontiff had brought in January.
``I know that a lot has been done for education here...that has to be recognised,'' Laghi said, referring to the free, public education system that the Cuban government presents as one of its greatest social achievements.
But he added the Church could help to ``widen and reinforce'' the choice and scope of education available.
During his four-day visit, the cardinal was scheduled to travel to provincial parishes and was also expected to be received by Cuban President Fidel Castro. He would say mass in Havana Monday to celebrate the Feast of St Peter and St Paul, the official commemorative day of the papacy.
15:45 06-27-98
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