The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, has called for politicalfreedom in communist-run Cuba, but said the church will not join forces with opponents of President Fidel Castro.
Resisting calls from Catholics in Cuba and abroad to back afledgling opposition movement to Castro's one-party state, theArchbishop of Havana said the church will stick to itsspiritual mission and work for reconciliation between Cubans.
"The church's mission is not to be the opposition partythat unfortunately does not exist in Cuba," Ortega said onThursday night in a talk on the future of Cuba.
"I wish there were one, two or three different parties, butthey are not," he said.
The cardinal criticized recent political repression in Cubaand said Castro's communist society was steeped in a "moralcrisis" and offered Cubans no prospects of economicimprovement, leading many to want to emigrate to the UnitedStates.
Ortega said the church opposed the summary firing-squadexecution of three Cubans who hijacked a Havana Bay ferry inApril to try to reach Florida, and the lengthy prison sentencesgiven to 75 dissidents that were rounded up in March in theworst crackdown in decades.
But all the church could do, he said, was plead forclemency, which Pope John Paul II did in a letter to Castro.
Ortega, who criticized Castro's economic policies in apastoral letter in February, said the Catholic Church hadsurvived 44 years in communist Cuba by sticking to spiritualmatters and keeping out of politics.
Cuba's Catholic Church was severely weakened after theleft-wing revolution led by Jesuit-educated Castro in 1959.Hundreds of priests were expelled and churches emptied asatheism became the Caribbean island's official ideology.
Cubans started turning to Catholicism after the collapse ofthe Soviet Union plunged the island into deep economic crisis.
In 1992, atheism was dropped as the state's ideology, allowingmembers of the ruling Communist Party to practice religion.
The Pope's historic visit in January 1998 boosted thechurch's following, but did little to widen its limited role inCuba. The church is still denied access to education and to themedia, which is strictly controlled by the state.
Ortega said the Catholic hierarchy has not been allowed tobuild a single church in Cuba in more than four decades, andCatholics are obliged to meet in homes to pray and holdmasses.
"The church keeps alive. There has not been a spectaculargrowth, but neither has it declined," the cardinal said.
A recent survey showed that 45 percent of Cuban RomanCatholics had adopted the religion in the last 10 years, hesaid.