The pope in Cuba: 'Everyone's a winner but the US'
By Karen Lee Wald
HAVANA — While the pope's visit to Cuba was officially billed as a "pastoral visit" to Catholics at the invitation of their bishops, the world's attention was nevertheless drawn to the eminently political nature of the Holy See's expedition.
Repeatedly asked whether the pope could "bring down the Cuban revolution" the way he helped topple socialist governments in eastern Europe, Cuban President Fidel Castro replied that those who see the pontiff as some sort of "exterminating angel of socialism, communism and revolution" were to be disappointed.
Rather, now that the Cold War is over, and the Holy See has turned some of its attention to the suffering of humanity caused not by socialism but by capitalism, "the pope is possibly one of the biggest headaches facing the United States today", Castro added.
On January 21, the pope — along with nearly 3000 members of the international press — touched down in Havana. Most reporters were rooting for the pope to be as outspoken against communism as he was during his excursions to eastern Europe.
On the other hand, they were forced to admit that the Cuban revolutionaries also benefited from the pope's statements: "The world should open up to Cuba", and "Blockades are wrong because they strike out indiscriminately and hurt the weakest" (end US-imposed attempts to isolate Cuba politically); the alternative to eastern European-style socialism is not neo-liberalism, globalisation and the "savage capitalism" ruling the world today; and it would be a mistake for young people to get taken in by the lure of consumerism, which will not fulfil their most basic spiritual needs.
Even positions antithetical to Cuban policy were mitigated by the way the pontiff expressed them, and by reality. His main theme — unity of the family (against divorce, against abortion) — did not have the sting it would in countries where church doctrine is law. In revolutionary Cuba, no law is going to deny a woman control over her own body. Divorce and abortion will be permissible no matter what the church says.
At the first open air mass in Santa Clara on January 22, a young couple explained that they hoped to raise their daughter a Catholic, because they felt the moral position of the church would set a good example. But when queried about the church's position on contraception and abortion, they demurred: "I wouldn't go that far. That seems a kind of extreme position."
In his first homily, the pontiff took a swipe at the state-run school system in which Cuban teenagers boarding in rural areas learn the importance of manual as well as intellectual work.
"Not easily accepted and often traumatic is the separation of children and the substitution of the role of parents as a result of schooling away from home even during adolescence", he admonished. He added that such situations "sadly result in the spread of promiscuous behaviour, loss of ethical values, premarital sexual relations at an early age and easy recourse to abortion". It was a pitch for the reinstitution of church schools.
Since shortages in recent years have made this program much less popular, his remarks may have reached many receptive ears. But older Cubans who remember the church's role in "Operation Peter Pan" (a program through which the US State Department and Catholic priests smuggled 14,000 children out of Cuba in the first years of the revolution — half of whom did not see their families again for many years, if ever) felt it was hypocritical for the church to be attacking this program in the name of "family unity".
The Catholic Church seeks the right to reopen Catholic schools, without explaining that it has the right to offer religious instruction. What the church is not allowed to do is run private elementary and secondary schools. When the revolutionary government nationalised all private schools — Catholic, Protestant and secular — in the early 1960s, this was not aimed at the Catholic Church; it was simply a matter of eliminating one of the pillars of class society.
When the Catholic Church complains about lack of access to the media, it ignores the fact that the churches produce more than half a dozen newspapers. What they are seeking is a greater voice in the public media — a media sharply reduced even for the most pro-revolutionary voices by the economic crisis and the blockade.
The pope was careful to word his messages so they could be interpreted broadly, emphasising themes of "peace, love, hope and reconciliation", which both Vatican dispatches and Cuban Catholics reiterated in the months prior to his arrival. When he spoke of "human rights", it was usually in the same sentence as "social justice".
The archbishop of Santiago took a much harder, anti-government line in his introductory remarks at the pope's third mass, in that south-eastern city known as the cradle of the revolution, on January 24. Archbishop Pedro Meurice lashed out at "false messiahs" and complained of Cubans who "confuse the nation with a single party".
When we asked one Santiago resident if the archbishop's remarks surprised him, he responded: "No, he's been saying those kinds of things for a long time ... Here in Santiago we already knew his position."
It was clear that many people in Santiago were not happy with the church's message. While everyone applauded the pope's outspoken criticism of the US blockade, neo-liberalism and consumerism, and many hoped his calls for "opening up" Cuba would mean an easing of the serious economic crisis, many were affronted by the archbishop's remarks and wary of some of the pope's. Only Castro's strongly worded urging that all Cubans treat him courteously kept them from voicing disagreements.
Early in the morning on January 25, the pope's last day, people, urged on by revolutionary committees, gathered along the route of the famed "Popemobile" and at Havana's Plaza of the Revolution.
Prior to the pontiff's arrival, Castro asked Cubans to "show how a socialist and communist revolution can respect all believers and all non-believers". They should attend the masses "but none of them should voice a single slogan; no-one should carry a single sign ... no-one should cause even the most minimal provocation" or show any displeasure "regarding any phrase, word or pronouncement that we don't like, that seems unjust or disagreeable".
In other cities where masses were held, members of the small opposition groups — who were eagerly sought after by the hordes of foreign media — would sidle up to foreign press crews to be interviewed and then scurry off. In Havana, where the greatest number congregate, opponents were much more outspoken both before and during the mass. Small clusters within the crowd, estimated at over 200,000, occasionally chanted, "The free pope wants us to be free".
The pontiff took aim at many aspects of Cuban society. He made a strong plea for pluralism and specifically rejected the one-party system, insisting that "true liberation cannot be reduced to its social and political aspects", but must also include "the exercise of freedom of conscience — the basis and foundation of all other human rights".
The multitudes of revolutionary supporters bit their tongues, as they had been asked.
Nevertheless, the pope was careful to "balance" his message. At the Havana mass, the pope dwelled on themes with which the Cuban revolutionaries agreed. "Various places are witnessing the resurgence of a certain capitalist neo-liberalism, which subordinates the human person to blind market forces and conditions the development of people on those forces", the pope observed.
Without mentioning the International Monetary Fund or World Bank by name, the pope criticised the austerity programs imposed on Latin American and other Third World countries: "At times, unsustainable economic programs are imposed on nations as a condition for further assistance".
He made his most critical reference to the US economic blockade at the departure ceremony, saying that Cuba's "material and moral poverty" arises not only from "limitations to fundamental freedoms" and "discouragement of the individual", but also from "restrictive economic measures — unjust and ethically unacceptable — imposed from outside the country".
With Fidel Castro at his side, he said: "In our day, no nation can live in isolation. The Cuban people, therefore, cannot be denied the contacts with other peoples necessary for economic, social and cultural development, especially when the imposed isolation strikes the population indiscriminately, making it ever more difficult for the weakest to enjoy the bare essentials of decent living — things such as food, health and education."
Castro's last words to the pontiff expressed thanks on behalf of all the Cuban people "for all your words, even those with which there may be some disagreement".
Professor Wayne Smith, a former US diplomat in Cuba, commented that the only "loser" in this encounter between Fidel and the pope was the United States.
Much of the world media insisted that Castro hoped the pope's visit would "legitimise" the revolutionary government. Queried about this, national assembly president Ricardo Alarcon replied: "I don't think it's a matter of legitimising the revolution. What it does do is delegitimise the US [economic blockade], and further isolate [the US]."