Benjamin Gilman: “the most telling moment of the visit by His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Cuba occurred at the beginning of his public…”

“the most telling moment of the visit by His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Cuba occurred at the beginning of his public mass at Havana. The Pope successively greeted Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the Church hierarchy, and the priests and assembled faithful to repeated applause from the crowd that filled Jose Marti Plaza. The Pope then respectfully greeted Fidel Castro. Apart from the tiny sound of polite applause drifting from the stage over the loudspeakers, the sprawling crowd of ordinary Cubans stood in spontaneous, purposeful silence. No one applauded. While ordinary Cubans were clearly touched by the Pope's message, the Castro regime remains unmoved. Sadly, the Catholic church and other Cuban religious leaders and laity consider to face intransigence and repression. The Cuban regime's State Security apparatus is now arresting more dissidents than were released after the Pope's visit. In the meantime since the Pope's visit, church officials have publicly criticized the Cuban government for doing little since the Pope's visit to resolve issues that the Catholic church considers essential. Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that: The government of President Fidel Castro, which won praise for receiving the Pope has shown little new flexibility since then in response to church requests for greater freedom. Efforts to ease the admittance of foreign priests and nuns have made no apparent progress.…”