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By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
.c The Associated Press
EL RINCON,
Cuba (AP) - Hands without fingers reached for his hand. The heads of men doomed
by AIDS bowed for his blessing. And a choir of youngsters wiped away tears as
the old man in white passed by, bent with infirmity and fatigue.
Pope John Paul II's visit Saturday to El Rincon - an "encounter with
the world of suffering'' - was the most emotional event of his itinerary in
Cuba.
He met with 100 leprosy and AIDS patients and about 50 nursing nuns, doctors
and others at the St. Lazarus Sanctuary, a leprosarium 18 miles south of Havana.
In his address in the complex's tiny Spanish colonial chapel, the pope made
news by calling for the release of political prisoners in Cuba. But for the
patients, it was the solace he offered that was important.
"Christ is very close to all who suffer,'' he told them. "No
suffering is lost. No pain is without significance.''
After his talk, he passed among the AIDS victims and lepers, some in
wheelchairs, some missing limbs.
One woman with fingers lost to leprosy clutched his hand in hers. Nuns bowed
piously to take his blessing. He embraced an 8-year-old girl in the choir, which
sang the Polish hymn "We Want God,'' a favorite in the pope's homeland
during its communist years.
The center, run by the government and by nuns from the Roman Catholic Order
of the Daughters of Charity, draws its name from an early bishop, St. Lazarus.
But Cubans also associate him with the beggar Lazarus described in the book
of Luke and with the Yoruba deity Babalu-Aye, associated with help for the ill.
Yoruba is an African-descended religious practice that has adopted some
Christian elements.
Lazarus is the most popular saint among the vast number of baptized
Catholics here who practice Santeria, a mingling of Christian and African
beliefs.
The biblical Lazarus was a poor man covered with sores who begged at the
gate of a rich man. Lazarus went to heaven and the rich man was banished to
hell.
Gardens and lawns surround the dormitories where many of the St. Lazarus
Sanctuary's patients live. There also are rows of one-bedroom homes for couples.
Patients tend small vegetable gardens, and some play dominoes beneath the shade
of trees.
For the pope's visit, the leprosarium was spruced up with new sidewalks and
a fresh coat of pale yellow paint, the color associated with St. Lazarus.
The shrine is annually a destination for tens of thousands of Cubans - some
crawling on their knees and many asking for cures - who pay homage on the feast
of St. Lazarus in December.
"These are humble people who identify themselves with Lazaro,'' said
the Rev. Gabriel Torres, who works at the shrine. "Lazaro becomes the road
to the church and to God. And it is a road that does not close.''
AP-NY-01-24-98 2102EST |