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01:22 a.m. Jan 23, 1998 Eastern
By Frances Kerry
HAVANA
(Reuters) - Pope John Paul II went to the center of Cuba's communist regime,
meeting President Fidel Castro at Havana's Palace of the Revolution just hours
after attacking one of his proudest achievements—the state education
system.
Castro personally greeted the 77-year-old pontiff, who also criticized
communism during an open-air Mass in the central city of Santa Clara earlier in
the day.
But there was no sign of repercussions from the pope's outspoken statements
when he met Castro. The Cuban leader courteously led the pontiff along the
palace's corridors, chatting warmly, before and after their 40-minute private
meeting.
No details were available on the substance of their conversation, although
the pontiff said during his flight from Rome Wednesday that he wanted to talk
about human rights, hear ''the truth'' from Castro on Church-state relations,
and press for Christmas to be made a permanent holiday in Cuba.
Castro, 71, declared Christmas Day a holiday last year in honor of the
pope's visit but it is usually a normal work day.
Chief papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the Vatican had relayed
appeals for clemency by "many'' prisoners to Cuban government, which
Navarro-Valls said received them "with great attention''. Asked if any of
the prisoners were political, he said, "I think there are all kinds.''
In Santa Clara, 180 miles east of Havana, the pope celebrated his first Mass
on Cuban soil earlier Thursday and lost no time in criticizing communism, saying
it could not replace Christianity.
"No ideology can replace his (Christ's) infinite wisdom and power,''
the pope said, adding: "There is a need to recover religious values at the
level of the family and of society.''
He added: "Do not be afraid; open your families and schools to the
values of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which are never a threat to any social
projects.''
In an address that centered on family values, he lamented what he called "an
acceptance of abortion, which is always, in addition to being an abominable
crime, a senseless impoverishment of the person and of society itself''.
But his strongest criticism was reserved for the educational system.
Without naming them, he referred to the island's rural boarding schools,
which almost all Cuban adolescents are obliged to attend from age 14.
The pope said they often caused "traumatic'' separation between parents
and children. Such experiences put young people in situations that resulted in "the
spread of promiscuous behavior, loss of ethical values, coarseness, premarital
sexual relations at an early age and easy recourse to abortion''.
"All this has a profoundly negative impact on young people,'' the pope
said. His comments struck right at the heart of one of aspects of the Cuban
revolution of which the government is most proud—its free and universal
education.
In his welcoming speech for the pope Wednesday, Castro listed education as
one of the main achievements of the Cuban revolution.
The rural schools are dreaded by some parents, who would prefer to keep
their offspring under their control for a few more years and complain that the
relaxed co-ed environment leads to early and casual sex, and to unwanted teenage
pregnancies.
The pope also openly urged a liberalization of education to allow a place
for religion in Cuba, where all Church schools were nationalized in the early
1960s.
The pope's outspoken attack in a nationally televised Mass was all the more
extraordinary in a country where all media is state controlled and where
criticism is usually confined to Cubans grumbling in their homes, or to
dissidents.
The pontiff, walking with a stick, rode to and from the meeting with Castro
on the palace's second floor chambers in an elevator, rather than having to
negotiate the grand main staircase as is customary for visiting foreign
dignitaries.
After their meeting, Castro presented the pontiff with a leather-bound 19th
century book on the life of Cuban Roman Catholic priest Felix Varela, who is
honored as an intellectual precursor of Cuban independence and is a candidate
for sainthood.
Castro also gave him a medal of the order of Varela, Cuba's highest honor
for cultural merit.
The pontiff gave Castro a large reproduction of a Vatican mosaic icon
depicting Christ. |