Cuban Cardinal Foresees Lasting Fruits of Papal Visit

Casting Pope John Paul II’s historic trip here this week as a pastoral visit to a Cuban Catholic Church “that long has been ignored and silent,” Cardinal Jaime Ortega said Monday that the papal journey “should not be reduced to an encounter between two men.”

In his first news conference before the pope’s scheduled arrival here Wednesday, Ortega praised John Paul and Cuban President Fidel Castro as “men renowned worldwide for their leadership and charisma.” Their meeting, he said, will be between men who share “a great empathy and are attuned” to each other.

But the cardinal also said he had hoped Castro’s Communist government would give the Roman Catholic Church more access to state TV to run its own advertisements before the papal visit and air nationwide the pope’s coronation of Cuba’s patron saint Saturday.

On a day when the government announced it will close all workplaces so Cubans can attend the papal Masses, though, the cardinal concluded that the island’s church already has reaped “the fruits of the pope’s visit.” And he added: “I think there is evidence that they will remain present” after the pope’s Sunday departure.

“The church has had open spaces. . . . These spaces should be opened further and continue,” Ortega said, citing its charity group, Caritas, which has brought vital relief into a land isolated by a 35-year U.S. trade embargo. “Time does not go backward. It always takes steps that, to me, are irreversible, and there is always space for social action.”

As the cardinal spoke, fresh evidence of that new space towered Monday over Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution: a huge mural, selected by the church, of the Sacred Heart of Christ above the words “Jesus Christ, we trust in you.”

The painting covers the facade of the eight-story, state-owned National Library behind the stage where John Paul will celebrate the centerpiece Mass of his trip on Sunday. It joined a giant metal portrait of Cuba’s revolutionary hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara, which also overlooks the sprawling square.

In a nation where symbolism often counts more than words, the two opposing images reinforced the positions of church and state that the papal visit is both religious and official.

Ortega’s news conference marked his first public comments since Castro--who will meet the pope privately Thursday night--used a six-hour broadcast last weekend to call on Cubans of all faiths and political persuasions to attend the pope’s Masses. Ortega said Castro had told him in December that he would issue such a call. “Now, dialogue has started” between the church hierarchy and the government, he said.

But the cardinal also said he believes the church should be given more freedoms from a government that was officially atheist and discouraged all religions and their devotees until 1992.

He also addressed reports of disenchantment with the visit among followers of Afro-Cuban sects that worship Catholic saints as deities but do not adhere to Christian doctrine. “They are neither different nor alien,” he said. “They are part of the church because they have been baptized. The church has integrated popular religion. We consider them as part of the Catholic family.”

Times researcher Dolly Mascarenas contributed to this report.