Word: fidelity
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...hinted to Frei Betto that he was interested in meeting John Paul II, but not until the conditions were "guaranteed" for it to be a "fruitful meeting." He did, however, modulate the government's relations with the church from confrontation and hostility to the exploration of mutual interest. Neither Fidel nor the Pope suspected then how close to ruin the Soviet edifice was, and Cuba's leader was more concerned with how to manage the influence of liberation theology: while he supported its radical preachings in the rest of Latin America, he saw those same ideas as a threat...
...Pope's insistence on human rights, says Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, has shaped a "new moral doctrine." But unlike Fidel, John Paul II realizes that it makes no sense to try to impose that doctrine: people must be convinced that it is right to act according to certain values. "The Pope," says Navarro-Valls, "is not interested in beating people into submission but in showing them and convincing them this makes sense." John Paul II, says a papal aide, "won't come as a conquistador...
When he met for 35 minutes with Castro at the Vatican late in 1996, the Pope did not wag his finger or lecture the revolutionary Comandante. Instead, he listened. He let the eternally voluble Fidel talk. He treated him with the respect Castro craves. And he disarmed Fidel. Not only did the Cuban leader at long last issue the invitation for a pastoral trip, but also he gushed afterward about "the strong emotional impact" of their meeting, calling it a "miracle." He sang praises to the Pope's "greatness" and his "brilliant intellect...
Here in Havana, Cubans are of very mixed minds about the Pope's visit. "So many people do not even know who the Pope is," says Enrique Lopez Oliva, a professor of religious history at the University of Havana. Is he a President, a businessman? Is Fidel paying him to come? Even many Catholics are ignorant of the papal biography and doctrinal bent. In a country where abortion ends roughly 40% of all pregnancies and copulation begins in early adolescence, Cubans will be shocked by John Paul II's stern views on sex. His reverence for the family will seem...
...they're playing this," says a senior State Department official in Washington. "They are unlikely to have gone ahead with the visit unless they thought they could control it." Castro is betting that he will reap significant rewards. His aides may bristle at the word, but legitimacy is something Fidel has always sought. Just appearing on the same stage with the Vicar of Christ lends a powerful measure of respectability to the Cuban Comandante. At the same time, the regime will seek to replenish the threadbare rhetoric of the revolution by emphasizing the moral link between Christian and socialist ideas...