Legacy of historic papal visit helping to shape Cuba

By Andrew Cawthorne

HAVANA (Reuters): It was not the titanic clash many had predicted between the 20th century's leading anti-Communist "exterminating angel" and one of its last Marxist rulers, nor did it bring the walls of Fidel Castro's four-decade-old Cuban government tumbling down as his foes had dreamed.

In fact, one year after Pope John Paul II's ground-breaking visit to Castro's Cuba -- and as the pope concludes a six-day visit to Mexico and the United States -- not much seems to have changed fundamentally on this Caribbean island, which remains the Western Hemisphere's only bastion of communism.

Beyond the hype and below the surface, however, the papal trip set in motion a series of undramatic but significant shifts that have been clearly evidenced in the last 12 months and that should continue playing themselves out into the next century, analysts and diplomats here say.

"Remember the church has been around for 2000 years and has learned patience. They weren't looking for instant returns but were sowing seeds for the long-term future," a Latin American diplomat in Havana said.

"After the pope came and went without much fireworks the world lost interest and so lost sight of its real significance at a subtler level. The fact your average Catholic no longer fears going to Mass every week speaks for itself, doesn't it?"

For many, the biggest winner so far from the papal visit has probably been Castro, despite predictions his downfall would be hastened by the Polish-born pope who was credited with helping end communism in eastern Europe and who was ironically dubbed by Castro himself communism's "exterminating angel."

The pontiff's presence to some extent served to legitimize Castro's long-isolated government in the world's eyes and opened the gates to a stampede of visits by high-ranking officials and personalities from around the world.

Barely a week went by in 1998 without some high-profile visitor in town, from senior officials such as Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and European Union foreign ministers to Hollywood stars, sportsmen and even a pair of supermodels.

That trend has not let up in 1999. In January alone, Castro entertained, among others, the foreign ministers of Belgium and Canada, heads of state from Surinam and Colombia, Venezuela's President-elect Hugo Chavez and hundreds of international economists who attended a conference in Havana.

Now Cuba is preparing to host the King of Spain this spring, heads of state from the entire Hispanic world at November's Ibero-American Summit and presidents from around the globe at a Group of 77 meeting scheduled for Havana in 2000.

As well as opening the diplomatic floodgates, the pontiff's condemnation of the 37-year U.S. economic embargo on Cuba helped solidify growing world opposition to the sanctions, which is a central plank of Havana's political platform.

And, officials say, Cuba got a justified image boost. "The world was able to see our people up close, about whom so much is said abroad," Isidro Gomez of the ruling Communist Party's Office for Religious Affairs told Reuters in an interview. "There was a better diffusion of our reality. That gave the world a positive image. It broke the stereotypes."

Gomez said the world was shown specifically that religious freedom does exist in Cuba. "It proved that indeed the churches are alive in Cuba and develop their work and activity without impediment, that the revolution understands their role in society."

For Cuba's Catholic Church, marginalized for decades after Castro's 1959 revolution, the immediate benefits of the visit were obvious: unprecedented access to the island's state-run media, powerful external support, open-air Mass activities and scores of prisoner releases at the Vatican's request.

"It was like the church came out of the closet after all these years," one Western diplomat in Havana said.

Since then, the church has played a delicate game with the government, seeking to build gradually on those concessions while not antagonizing authorities and halting the process.

That policy bore some fruits in 1998: occasional radio appearances by church leaders, albeit on obscure stations; permission to hold unprecedented open-air processions during major festivals; authorization for dozens more foreign and religious workers to move to the island, and a small increase in attendance at churches.

At the end of the year, the church plucked its biggest prize to date: the permanent restoration of Christmas Day as a public holiday after its abolition 30 years ago.

"The church is satisfied with the progress made. It's been slow but has brought concrete things," church spokesman Orlando Marquez told Reuters. "That makes us think that in the future this will continue. ... Things take time. The structures and mentalities of four decades don't change in a year."

The "taboo" about being Catholic in Cuba had diminished thanks to the papal trip but not disappeared, Marquez said.

"In some places they've authorized processions, but in others not. In some places a young person can wear a crucifix, but in others not. In some rural schools a youngster can carry a Bible, in others not."

Among the church's most important outstanding petitions to the state are a return of religious education and more permanent space for Catholics in the mainstream media.

Gomez, of the religious affairs office, said there were "perspectives" for giving the church more media access this year. "There is not an opposition to that. We are evaluating how to achieve that space," he said, adding, however, that Protestant, Afro-Caribbean and other religious groups would have to be given equal treatment.

But religious education is a nonstarter, Gomez said. The government will not allow a return to "privileged" private schools, and with such a diversity of religions Cuba's national education system cannot adopt just one faith to teach.

"Sometimes the (Catholic) church sees this from the point of view that it is the only religion, but it's not." he said.

While the church and government are relatively upbeat about the lasting impact of the pope's trip, Castro's biggest critics in and outside Cuba are scathing. They say Havana has exploited the visit shamelessly to earn political breathing space while offering "crumbs" to the church in return and totally ignoring the pope's calls for greater political freedom.

"Just by the pope being on the island it made it seem that Castro had changed his evil tune. But in fact none of that has happened. It's a false impression," said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican and hardline Castro foe.

"Changes have been cosmetic and fleeting. We are no more closer to democracy now than before," she said. "There are no less political prisoners now than before, or freedom of press. If we still have all of that, what has been accomplished?"

She and others, including exile leaders abroad and dissidents at home, express disappointment that the Catholic Church has not taken a more radical, pro-democracy stance in Cuba as it has in Eastern Europe and Central America.

"In Cuba it's almost another arm of the government because they have never wanted to rock the boat," Ros-Lehtinen said.

Some exile leaders have hinted the church may be brought to account in a future post-Castro Cuba for its "diplomatic" stance. But more moderate elements praise the church for putting practical results before dangerous posturing.

Catholic leaders themselves remain crystal-clear in saying they do not want to become a de facto opposition force to challenge Cuba's one-party Communist system.

"The church cannot be the opposition which doesn't exist in Cuba," spokesman Marquez insisted. "Its function is not a political one ... not to elaborate a transition program."