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January 20, 1998
The New York Times
By MIRTA OJITO
HAVANA -- For
two straight hours, Maria de los Angeles Romero has been gluing paper Cuban
flags to rough wooden sticks. The glue, a homemade lumpy mixture of water and
flour, sticks to Ms. Romero's bony fingers, and from there to her limp hair.
But Ms. Romero, an intense and wiry woman of 53, does not seem to mind. When
Pope John Paul II arrives in this city on Wednesday afternoon, thousands of
people waving Cuban and Vatican flags will be waiting for him. Ms. Romero knows
that at least 1,200 of those flags will have gone through her hands. And that
makes her very happy.
"It is such a big, big feeling, that I can't explain it to you,"
she said, sitting on a back pew in La Milagrosa, an old church in Santos Suarez,
an elegant but faded neighborhood just outside this city's tourist-packed
center. "My great-aunt, who is 87 and has seen it all in this country, and
I mean everything, says that after the pope comes, she can die in peace, because
then she really would have seen it all. The pope in Cuba, imagine that."
Ms. Romero, who was educated in Catholic schools in the 1950s and kept her
faith even in the years when being a Catholic here meant enduring ostracism, is
one of thousands of long-time as well as recently converted Catholics who are
walking around these days somewhat giddy and still incredulous over the events
they are about to witness.
The last time President Fidel Castro attended a public Mass here was in
November 1959. Shortly after that, a young man was killed in a religious
procession. Since then, processions and outdoor Masses have been forbidden. And
yet, on the eve of the pope's visit, Castro is urging the Cuban people to make
the occasion another "success of the revolution" and give the pope a
warm, polite welcome.
Catholics all over the island are taking Castro at his word. Religious signs
and posters, once unthinkable sights in this country, now dot each block of the
city. People proudly hang the image of the pope from their front door the same
way that, years before, many hung sings welcoming Castro to their homes.
Teen-agers openly hang wooden crosses from their necks, sometimes next to the
image of a favorite singer, and even government officials have taken up yellow
and white as the colors of this season.
In La Milagrosa, where the church usually feeds 80 elderly people daily and
recently baptized 12 children in one hour, the normally feverish pace has
increased as the pope's visit nears. Throughout Monday, people of all ages, but
especially young ones, roamed through the church in a frenzy of activity more
typical of a sports arena.
Women and men distributed tickets for the buses that will take the elderly
to the papal Mass in Havana on Sunday. A young woman in jeans grabbed a
microphone to remind the youngsters that on the eve of the Mass they were
invited to a sleepover at the church.
The wake-up call will be early, though. At 5:30 a.m., the group will begin
walking to the Plaza de la Revolucion, about five miles away, where the Mass
will be held. They will be led by Rev. Jesus Maria Lusarreta, a feisty
60-year-old Spanish priest with a zeal for missionary work.
In a small area upstairs, near the bell tower, a group of adolescents held a
contest to see who knew more about the pope and the church. The clear winner was
Sergio Perez, a 12-year-old who easily recited the names of the nine popes of
the 20th century and then explained who served the longest (Pius IX, for 32
years). For his efforts, he won a blue pen.
The pope's visit, and Castro's stamp of approval, also seem to have given
some people license to speak more openly about their religious and political
feelings. When asked what they hoped the pope's visit would accomplish, several
children in the group raised their hands. Yuleysi Diaz, 15, said the pope would
give Cubans courage.
"Too many things have to change around here and we are just afraid,"
she said as the others nodded. "Remember that he was the pope who toppled
the Berlin Wall."
Yalima Garcia, 14, said she had already benefited from the pope's visit. Her
teachers do not bother her anymore for wearing her simple wooden cross to
classes. She said they used to ask her to tuck it inside her uniform blouse or
leave it at home. Lately, she said, they have left her alone.
She also now has plenty of company. Of 30 students in her class, 28 said
they were practicing Catholics. Since the pope's visit was announced, the
children of this church have walked the neighborhood urging others to welcome
the pope. They have distributed papal memorabilia -- posters and stamps -- to
their friends, and they have also taken their message to schools, where it has
been well received for the most part.
"The more doors we knock on, the better we get at it," Lusarreta
said. "Many were closed on us before, but not anymore."
Lusarreta said his 50-year-old coral-rock church had about 1,000 active
members. His hope is that after the pope leaves, more people will heed his
message and return to the church.
His flock is making sure of that. Every block in this neighborhood has a
church representative assigned to it. They check on the ailing and deliver lunch
to the elderly. They take children to Saturday catechism (Ms. Romero alone takes
50). And they conduct prayer groups every week in an assigned house, one on each
block.
Even young children are working hard these days. Yenilia Fernandez, 10, was
busily gluing flags alongside Ms. Romero. She said it was the least she could do
to give something back to the church. "I'm always here," she said. "And
now even more so."
That is also the case with the Garcia family. With both parents teaching
catechism, one child helping the priest during Mass and the other taking
catechism classes, the Garcias come to church every day but Tuesday. The day of
the Mass, though, they have another plan. They will pack a light lunch of
whatever food they can find by Sunday and wear comfortable clothes.
Jorge Garcia, a mechanic, and his children, 11 and 14, have set aside a
thick rope from which they will hang Vatican and Cuban paper flags. Each member
of the family, including Garcia's 79-year-old mother, will hold on to the rope
as they walk to the site of the Mass.
The rope is much longer than they need, he said, because he hopes that other
people will join them in the way there. "This is the biggest event that my
family has ever participated in," he said.
"We want to make sure we are prepared and joined together, with this
rope," he said, adding that the rope has a practical use: he hopes it will
prevent them from getting lost in the crowd.
Copyright 1998 The New York Times |