Vatican sources say Havana has expressed opposition to allowing four Catholic church officials now abroad -- two priests, one auxiliary bishop and one cardinal -- to fly to Cuba to join the pontiff during his Jan. 21-25 visit.

Tops on the unwelcome list: Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, a plain-spoken anti-communist who recently called the Marxist-led Sandinista Front ``a bunch of snakes.''

Named cardinal by John Paul in 1985, Obando y Bravo used his new heightened visibility to blast the then-ruling Sandinistas for everything from human rights violations to disastrous economic policies.

He steadfastly refused to condemn the CIA-backed guerrillas then fighting the Sandinistas, in effect accepting the argument that the rebels had legitimate reasons to take up arms against the government.

And he cracked down on Sandinista attempts to promote a ``people's church,'' based on Liberation Theology, that sought to highlight the church's identification with the social works of the Sandinista government.

Yet at several crisis points in Nicaragua's history, Sandinistas as well as their opponents accepted Obando y Bravo as a trustworthy mediator for many of their conflicts.

``Allowing Obando into Cuba would be like turning a bull loose in a china shop,'' one Havana priest said. ``He might anger not only the government, but perhaps some of the meeker leaders of our church.''

Second on Cuba's not-wanted list is Miami's Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman, one of the 133 priests Cuban police forced aboard the Spanish freighter Covadonga in 1961 and expelled from the island.

The 70-year-old Roman has already announced he would not go to Cuba for the pope's visit, saying he wanted nothing to do with President Fidel Castro's regime, but would not ask other exiles to stay away from the pontiff.

Roman, point man for the archdiocese's 500,000 Cubans, is a regular at exile events in Miami and was the driving force behind the construction of the Ermita de la Caridad, the shrine to Cuba's patron saint. He argues that there's no contradiction between being a priest and criticizing Castro's government.

``There is no conflict when human rights are involved,'' Roman said in an interview several years ago.

Third on the list is the Rev. Francisco Santana, 56, an Ermita priest who has been active in the Democracy Flotillas and several groups that support Cuban dissidents, and has blessed Brothers to the Rescue airplanes.

Santana said Wednesday he had heard reports that he is on Cuba's no-go list, but is considering applying for a visa in any case to go on a personal trip -- not on the cruise ship -- to see the pontiff.

``I would never do anything or say anything to injure the sentiments of exiles. But in this case I must consider going to Cuba, not to be with the government, but to be with the Cuban people as they meet the pope,'' he said.

Last on the list is the Rev. Miguel Loredo, jailed in Cuba for 10 years on a charge of helping a Castro opponent involved in a 1966 airplane hijacking attempt that year that ended in a murder.

A senior Cuban Interior Ministry official who defected two years ago, Daniel Alarcon, confessed last month that Loredo, 58 and assigned to the church of St. Francis of Assisi in New York City, was framed by police.

``It was all because of Fidel's conviction that the church was the enemy of the revolution,'' Alarcon said.

Vatican officials said they are still trying to get Cuban visas for Obando y Bravo and Santana, and may even put them on the plane that will fly the pontiff from Rome to Havana, in an attempt to force Cuba's hand.

``But it doesn't look good, I admit,'' one Cuban church official said. ``It seems Castro will indeed decide who attends a papal Mass.''