Associated Press
March 21, 2008 4:01 p.m.
HAVANA -- Pope Benedict XVI donated the collection from a Holy Thursday
Mass to a Cuban orphanage -- a gesture seen here as a sign the Roman
Catholic Church wants to be a key moral force in Cuba's future.
On the heels of a historic leadership change and a high-level diplomatic
visit from the Vatican, Pope Benedict's nod to Cuba is the latest
example of how the church and this communist government have taken
small, quiet steps toward healing a once-adversarial relationship.
"It shows that the pope is in tune with Cuba and understands where it is
going .. and that the visit and declarations of [Cardinal Tarcisio]
Bertone were more than just diplomacy," said Aurelio Alonso, a Cuban
academic who studies the church's influence. "It was an important
gesture at a very important moment in time."
While the church needs government permission to expand its social and
educational role, the Cuban government sees it as a moral compass amid
drifting values and a search for a national identity, church observers
say. And good relations with the church help rehabilitate Cuba's image
world-wide.
Discussions between Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state,
and new President Raul Castro last month touched on political prisoners
in Cuba and Cubans jailed for spying in the U.S. Cardinal Bertone also
publicly reiterated the Vatican's long-held position that the U.S.
embargo against Cuba is "ethically unacceptable."
"In my opinion, the church wants to exercise its role as a mediator"
between Cuba and the outside world, said Enrique Lopez Oliva, a
representative in Cuba of the Commission for the Study of the History of
the Church in Latin America. "The issue of prisoners is already on the
table. And I have no doubt that the pope will bring up the issue of Cuba
with President Bush in April when he visits Washington."
Cuban church officials dismissed any political significance in the
pope's donation to the Golden Age orphanage in Havana, noting that it's
something the pope does every Holy Week, choosing a different country
each time. But they agreed that the Cuban church's relationship with the
government is improving, and that Cardinal Bertone's visit helped.
"The communication is more fluid," said Archbishop Dionisio Garcia in
the eastern city of Santiago.
The church is seeking official status, specifically unlimited access to
news media and the reopening of Catholic schools, which were
expropriated after the revolution nearly 50 years ago. The Cuban
government has not officially responded to the request, but for months
has been giving the church -- without fanfare -- regular drips of latitude.
A Catholic seminary in Havana is the first being built since the
revolution. The government has recently allowed foreign students to
attend Mass in a public medical school. And it has let churches teach
nonreligious classes in subjects such as languages and computers and
expand charity programs such as elderly day care.
Most significantly, the state televised Cardinal Bertone's Mass from
Havana's cathedral plaza, and the Communist Party newspaper Granma
published a letter from Cuba's Council of Bishops congratulating Mr.
Castro for opening up dialogue in the country.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120612924371155627.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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