An anti-communist message

By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer

Pope John Paul II was supposed to have been a spent whirlwind by the time he got to Cuba, too feeble and disenchanted with the ``savage capitalism'' that replaced communism in Eastern Europe to kick up much of a fuss on the island.

But through four homilies and seven public speeches to the young and the infirm, to Catholic priests and communist cadres, to Havana intellectuals and provincial peasants, John Paul's message was as decidedly anti-communist as ever.

President Fidel Castro seemed to have hoped for a more sympathetic pontiff, telling John Paul when he arrived in Havana on Wednesday that ``we feel the same way you do'' on issues from world poverty to exploitative capitalism.

The pope obliged in part, condemning materialism in his Friday Mass in the provincial capital of Camaguey, then decrying ``neo-liberal capitalist'' systems that ``enrich the few on the backs of the poverty of many'' in his Sunday Mass in Havana.

He criticized the U.S. trade embargo as ``unjust and ethically unacceptable'' because it hurts only the most defenseless.

As predicted, the bulk of his speeches were devoted to pastoral issues, time and again calling Cubans back to the fold, to the church's religious and moral life, to support priests and bishops, attend Mass and accept the sacraments.

But in the more political parts of his speeches, John Paul incessantly fired away at communism, politely but insistently condemning it as a system that denies people their freedom, dignity and individuality and urging Cuba to move away from it.

John Paul called for the release of prisoners jailed merely for peaceful opposition to the government and argued that democracy is the system best suited to helping people achieve their full potential.

With Castro in his audience, John Paul said modern states cannot be atheist and clearly called for significant reforms: ``It is the hour to take the new roads required as the world approaches the Third Millennium.''

Human rights, justice

True freedom, he insisted, requires guarantees of human rights and justice. And his church has a duty to publicly denounce any wrongdoings ``in the face of corruption of political power'' and voice its opinions on national issues.

Catholics ``have the duty and the right to participate in public debate on the basis of equality and in an attitude of dialogue and reconciliation,'' the pope said. And the U.S. embargo, he said, cannot be blamed for all of Cuba's ills.

He urged ``gradual and peaceful change'' toward ``large and authentic reforms'' and repeatedly assured his audiences ``Don't be afraid'' -- of anything from letting Jesus into their hearts to demanding their right to decide their children's education.

He talked of freedom, of the millions of Cubans living abroad for political or economic reasons, and called for national ``reconciliation'' -- a theme that Vatican officials have long promoted as a summons to talks between Castro and his foes.

John Paul repeatedly addressed the moral crisis in Cuba, linking it to the dehumanizing policies of systems that reject religion, and again and again urging the government to bring ethics back into official life.

He decried Cuba's low rate of marriages and high rate of illegitimate children, and condemned abortion, rampant in Cuba because of shortages of birth-control pills and a public medicine system that offers free abortions on demand.

And he said prostitution was ``not only a personal issue'' -- an indirect reference to Cuban government arguments that the island's growing sex industry is not the result of poverty but of women seeking luxury goods.

Education system condemned

John Paul clearly struck a sensitive chord with Cubans when he condemned an education system that requires all secondary school students to attend live-in schools in the countryside, as promoting promiscuity and breaking up family ties.

He called for the return of religious schools, closed by Castro since the early 1960s, and insisted the church should have more access to mass media now monopolized by the communist government.

John Paul painted Cuba's education system, one of the Castro revolution's proclaimed achievements, as devoid of human or religious values and repeatedly referred to Cubans abroad, once branded ``worms'' by Castro, as part of the Cuban nation.

Few of those critical words ever made it into Cuban newspapers, which chose to stress the parallels between the Roman Catholic Church's and Cuba's positions, and to praise the pope's words while actually publishing few of them.

But Cuban television and radio broadcast his homilies in the provincial capitals of Santa Clara, Camaguey, Santiago de Cuba and, finally, Havana live and to the whole nation, carrying his uncensored words to everyone listening.

Impact to be determined

On Sunday, with the pope just boarding the Alitalia jetliner that was to fly him back to the Vatican, it was too early to speculate on what impact those words might have on Castro, his government, the 11 million Cubans on the island and their future.

The message has yet to sink in for a stunned Cuban people, barely emerging from 30 years of official atheism. Castro has yet to wade in with his own public-relations spin on the visit. The government has yet to consider all those papal calls for change.

But it was clear that the pope had delivered a much stronger anti-communist message than some had anticipated, a broadly ethical yet microscopically detailed critique of a system that he believes is denying Cubans their full potential.