The Pope’s Bridges to Cuba

When Karol Wojtyla became the first Polish pope, Poland was a Communist state. Now it is not. After the pope scolded the Marxist Sandinistas during a visit to Managua, the Nicaraguan people voted them out of office. So now that John Paul II has accepted Fidel Castro’s invitation to visit Cuba next year, the question on many minds is whether the pope will be able to perform a political miracle and sow the seeds of a future democracy on the Caribbean island.

Realistically, a conversion of that magnitude is unlikely in the short term. Thus the pope’s visit to Cuba should be interpreted mainly as a big step toward institution building there. The Vatican has described the trip as a pastoral visit whose purpose is to strengthen the severely diminished presence of the Catholic Church under the Communist regime. After the Cuban Catholic hierarchy laid its fate against the bearded revolutionaries in 1959, the Communist government retaliated by imposing severe restrictions on the church. As a result there are now a scant 200 priests and 400 nuns to attend the needs of Cuba’s Catholics, who accounted for 85% of the population at the time of the revolution.

Some observers believe the pope is making a major mistake in going to Havana. They argue that the papal visit will lend moral authority to Castro, generally regarded outside his domain as an anachronistic figure. This view is myopic. As outdated as Castro’s communism may be, the longtime president is by no means isolated in the world. The condemnation of the punitive U.S. Helms-Burton trade law at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile, earlier this month indicates support within the Western Hemisphere. Last week came a U.N. General Assembly resolution, approved 137 to 3, calling for an end to the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba. So Castro is not without support, though to many countries he may no longer be particularly relevant in world affairs. In U.S. politics, his standing has been diminished by the vehement opposition of the Cuban exile community.

No doubt the pope will try to lift governmental restrictions on Catholic charitable organizations on the island. A revival of church philanthropy could do much to relieve the worst of the poverty of recent years. The mere presence of John Paul in Havana could freshen the political air in the country.

So it’s fairly clear what the Vatican might gain from the trip. More important from Castro’s view is the prospect that the visit will position the church as a powerful broker between Cubans in Cuba and those in America, particularly the powerful anti-Castro forces in Miami. Any official or unofficial bridges that the church can build between these two groups may someday spare Cuba bloodshed when Castro and communism leave the scene, presumably to a democratic successor government. That alone is a compelling reason to value the opening of a dialogue between the pope and Castro.