The pope has it right

Those who oppose America's obsolete trade embargo on Cuba found an eloquent ally in Pope John Paul II as he visited the island in recent days. It was not just John Paul's criticism of embargoes, which he had made before, but the attention he drew to humanitarian needs in Cuba that Washington has stubbornly ignored.

The embargo is an embarrassing anachronism. It was imposed by Dwight Eisenhower, when Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union and Cuba was seen as a Soviet base. The embargo has failed to strangle the Castro regime or force it to change. If anything, the embargo has helped him retain power by giving him a rallying point to unite Cubans, and something to blame for their privations. It has also lessened outside pressure on him. European and Latin American governments have softened their criticism, lest they be seen as endorsing Washington's heavy- handedness.

The pope's concerns focus on the impact of the embargo on Cuba's poor. Since American companies hold the patents on many drugs and medical devices, the 1992 law that barred virtually all medical sales to Cuba by the companies' foreign subsidiaries has been particularly damaging. Now that the United States has sought to get more food to Iraq and North Korea, there is no justification for impeding the sale of food and medicine to Cubans.

If the White House cannot muster the political courage to press for the embargo's repeal, it should at least continue to delay implementing provisions in the Helms-Burton law that seek to keep foreign companies from doing business in Cuba. The administration should also work for passage of congressional bills introduced last year that would allow the sale of food and medicine. They enjoy bipartisan support and even the approval of some emigre groups.

No one has stronger anti-Communist credentials than John Paul. If he can extend a hand to Cubans, so can the United States.

-- The New York Times