HAVANA: Pope John Paul II helped bring down the Berlin Wall, but hardly dented Cuban Communism despite a landmark visit that many thought would open up the Western Hemisphere’s last Marxist state. Chants of “Freedom, Freedom” rang out during a mass the pontiff held in Havana’s Revolution Square on Jan 25, 1998, attended by more than 300,000 Cubans, including President Fidel Castro, who smiled occasionally.
The Pope called on Cuba to open up to the world, while condemning the evils of both communism and capitalism in his homily in the massive square, symbolic home of Castro’s 1959 revolution.
“She needs to open herself to the world and the world needs to draw close to Cuba,” he said.
The five-day visit was the first by a pontiff to the Caribbean island and came as the one-party state’s grip was slipping amid a deep economic crisis and isolation that followed the demise of the Soviet Union.
Many Cubans, aware of the impact of the Pope’s triumphant trips to his once communist homeland Poland, hoped the visit would speed social change and relieve their hardship.
Castro, who had a Jesuit school education, declared Cuba an atheist state after his revolution ousted a right-wing dictator.
Spanish priests were expelled, churches closed and many Catholics sent to labour camps, including the current Archbishop of Havana and Cuba’s top prelate, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
In 1992, however, as Havana began negotiations with the Vatican for a papal visit, atheism was officially dropped. Cubans, even members of the ruling Communist Party, could become believers, read the Bible in public, wear crosses and go to mass without fear of persecution.
Christmas was reinstated as a holiday in December, 1997, as a gesture to the Vatican ahead of John Paul’s visit.
The government allowed religious processions outside church buildings for the first time, and the Pope’s open-air masses were broadcast live on state-run television.—Reuters
