Pope Writes to Gorbachev; Bid for Visit Seen

Pope John Paul II has written a private letter to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev in an unusual gesture that could pave the way for a papal visit to the Soviet Union, Vatican sources said Tuesday.

Vatican officials confirmed the existence of the letter but refused to discuss its contents. They said it will be delivered personally to Gorbachev by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, who is due to arrive in Moscow today.

Vatican sources suggested that the letter would echo John Paul’s repeated call for the right to freedom of religion. They described the letter as “cordial.”

L’Unita, the Italian Communist Party newspaper, said the papal letter applauds Gorbachev’s policy of perestroika , which is aimed at restructuring Soviet society, and the “new spaces” the Pope hopes it will afford to religious believers in the Soviet Union.

John Paul has made no secret of his desire to visit the Soviet Union, particularly during this year’s celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Christianity in that part of the world. But there has been no invitation, despite repeated public papal hints and constant backstage maneuvering.

Instead, officials of the Russian Orthodox Church belatedly invited a delegation from the Vatican to participate in anniversary celebrations that began Monday. The invitation was seen as evidence of what some diplomats here term a cautious Soviet softening toward the church. Polish-born John Paul and his predecessors have been frequent targets of harsh Soviet criticism for their anti-communism.

Responding to the invitation, the Vatican decided to send to Moscow the highest-ranking delegation possible short of the Pope himself. Headed by Cardinal Casaroli, it includes Dutch Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, head of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Christian Unity, French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who heads the Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace, two bishops and Spaniard Joaquin Navarro, a layman who is the Pope’s official spokesman.

On Thursday, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Casaroli will address a group of Soviet and international church leaders, government officials and the diplomatic corps. Navarro said the address will be broadcast live throughout the Soviet Union.

Casaroli will also meet with government officials preparing legislation that would expand religious freedom in the Soviet Union and confer with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze about a Gorbachev meeting with the Pope at the Vatican during a projected visit to Italy, probably next year.

Meeting in Kremlin

On Monday, Casaroli will address a meeting in the Kremlin attended by Gorbachev and President Andrei A. Gromyko. Never has a Vatican official of Casaroli’s rank entered the Kremlin.

Seeking a dialogue that could lead to history’s first papal visit to the nation, John Paul has encouraged unification talks with the Russian Orthodox Church, which broke with Rome in the 11th Century and takes its orders now from Soviet government officials.

At the same time, John Paul has insisted on the right to religious freedom for 4 million Roman Catholics in the Ukraine whose faith has been officially banned since 1946.

In an understated, carefully worded letter to the underground Ukrainian church earlier this year, the Pope argued that “no one ought to consider membership in the Catholic Church as incompatible with the good of the homeland.”