Raul Castro Meets With Vatican No. 2

By WILL WEISSERT – Feb 26, 2008

HAVANA (AP) — The Vatican's No. 2 official expressed the Roman Catholic Church's concern about prisoners in Cuba during a Tuesday meeting with President Raul Castro, but stopped short of asking the communist government to free inmates.

Raul Castro's meeting with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was the new Cuban president's first with a visiting dignitary since taking over from his 81-year-old brother Fidel two days ago. Bertone is Pope Benedict XVI's secretary of state.

Wrapping up a six-day visit to the communist-run island, the cardinal said the relationship between the Church and Cuba's government "will always be challenging, but also full of opportunities to promote the well-being of Cubans."

He said that during the closed-door meeting, with the "utmost respect for the sovereignty of the country and its citizens, I expressed to President Raul Castro the Church's worries for prisoners and their families."

Bertone's visit marked the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba and its timing, just after Fidel Castro announced his resignation, was a coincidence. Following the late pontiff's trip in 1998, Cuban authorities released a large number of inmates, including 99 held for political crimes.

Bertone touched on the theme of prisoners before the meeting with Cuba's prisoners.

Earlier, the cardional told the news agency of the Italian Bishops Conference, SIR, that in discussions with Cuban officials he had not asked "directly" for the release of political prisoners.

"It would look like interference," he was quoted as saying. "The Church does not impose, but proposes."

He also told the agency that the island's leaders had assured him they would allow some Roman Catholic broadcasts on state-controlled media.

"Authorities have promised me more openness in the print press and the radio — and in some exceptional cases, in television as well," he said. "We do hope for some openness, because nothing is impossible."

Bertone has called for improving often-strained relations between Cuba's government and the Church, and reacted warmly to official invitations for Benedict to visit the island.

Besides requests that some Catholic services be aired on official media outlets, Church officials have long urged the government to ease bans on religious schools. But Bertone told SIR that he "did not ask for Catholic schools, but for greater space in formation and education."

During his visit, Bertone has also called the U.S. embargo against Cuba "ethically unacceptable."

Addressing reporters moments before he left Cuba, Bertone said that he assured Raul Castro of "the Holy See's promise to promote bringing the world closer to Cuba."

Cuba's single-party, communist government never outlawed religion, but expelled priests and closed religious schools upon Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959. Tensions eased in the early 1990s when the government removed references to atheism in the constitution and let believers of all faiths join the Communist Party. They warmed more with John Paul's visit.

But in a message to Cuban bishops last week, Benedict said some Catholics on the island are frustrated by difficulties, mistrust and a lack of resources.

Since arriving in Cuba, Bertone has presided over large Mass services in Havana and Santiago, as well as in Guantanamo, which borders the U.S. naval base.