The Pope is available if Fidel
wishes to see him in Havana
VATICAN CITY, March 16 (AP) -- The Vatican says Pope Benedict XVI will be available should Fidel Castro ask to meet with the Pontiff when he visits Cuba later this month.
Castro hosted Pope John Paul II during his historic visit in 1998, but the 85-year-old former Cuban leader has made only rare public appearances in recent months. He was last seen in photographs released by Cuban state media March 2 with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who was recovering from tumor surgery in Cuba.
Asked about a possible meeting between the Pope and Castro at a media briefing Friday, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that if Castro "wants to, the Pope will be available." Benedict arrives in Cuba from Mexico on March 26.
During the briefing, Lombardi, asked about the U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, said the Vatican's "often-repeated position" is contrary to the measure.
"The Holy See does not hold it to be a positive or useful measure. It is something that causes the population to suffer, and therefore does not attain its purpose," he said.
Other highlights of Fr. Lombardi's press briefing are reported by AGI:
'The Pope is very well -
the demands of his coming trip
constitute a sign of it'
VATICAN CITY, March 16 (Translated from AGI) - "The Pope is very well. You can see it just as I do. Despite his age, he has been carrying out all his commitments effectively", said Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi when asked today about the Pope health, at his press briefing for the 85-year-old Pope's trip to Mexico and Cuba March 23-28.
"During this trip, the Pope is facing commitments that are quite demanding for his age and for his strength. So this is a sign that he is well. We all know that since March 1, he is now older than John Paul II was when he died".
About why Benedict XVI is not visiting the Mexican capital, Fr. Lombardi recalled that "the altitude of Mexico City (12,000 feet above sea level) is not advisable for his health".
In any case, he said, "the Pope is not expected to use the rolling platform during this trip." He will be using the Popemobile for his arrival and departure from the major Mssses he will celebrate outdoors in both Mexico and Cuba.
No meeting planned or expected
in Mexico with victims of Fr. Maciel -
because none has been requested
VATICAN CITY, March 16 (Translated from AGI) - During his visit to Mexico on March 23-26, Benedict XVI is not expected to meet with victims of Fr. Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the Legionaries of Christ shown to have had children out of wedlock and to have abused seminarians and young priests during the decades that he was revered as the leader of a very successful ecclesial movement that includes priests, consecrated men and women, and lay faithful.
Fr. Lombardi said at his press briefing when asked about this: "Although in previous occasions, the Pope's meeting with sexual abuse victim was not part of the program, this time the Mexican bishops have not requested for a similar occasion, so this eventuality can be excluded".
[In the USA, Australia, Malta, the United Kingdom and Germany, where the Pope met with victims, the local bishops had requested and arranged for some victims to meet with the Pope, but these meetings were only disclosed publicly after they had taken place.]
Dissidents protest Church move
for police to peacefully dislodge
protestors from a Havana church
by PAUL HAVEN
HAVANA, March 16 (AP) - A decision by Cuba's Roman Catholic cardinal to call police in to remove dissidents occupying a church has sparked an uncomfortable debate about the institution's role on this Communist-run island at the worst possible moment: just 10 days ahead of a high-profile visit by Pope Benedict XVI.
Cuban opposition leaders who had kept their distance from the 13 little-known protesters holed up in the Church of Charity since Tuesday nonetheless denounced the move by Cardinal Jaime Ortega to oust them, saying Friday it was a black mark for a Church that ought to protect human and political rights.
The criticism was joined by human rights officials and some exiles, though others acknowledged the dissidents put church leaders in a tough spot. Religious experts noted the eviction of the occupiers was not unprecedented, with police called in just last month to remove protesters from a camp outside St. Paul's cathedral in London, and Occupy Wall Street protesters removed from a church in New York last year.
The 13 Cuban dissidents were removed from the church in Central Havana at 9:30 p.m. Thursday by some 60 unarmed officers, who took them to a nearby police station, fingerprinted them and issued a formal warning before sending them home. The Church said in a statement that it had secured a promise from the government not to prosecute the dissidents for their action.
The group initially demanded an audience with the Pope during his March 26-28 visit, then asked that he mediate a list of demands on their behalf, including establishing a transitional government to end a half-century of Communist rule under Fidel and Raul Castro.
The Church said the dissidents were evicted peacefully in an operation that took less than 10 minutes, an account verified by local residents interviewed by The Associated Press on Friday, but vehemently disputed by at least one occupier.
"The church is lying, " Fred Calderon said in a telephone interview. "It wasn't peaceful. They removed us with violence and shoving."
The Vatican stood by Ortega in a terse statement from Rome.
"We approved of the position of the cardinal and the diocese," said Rev. Federico Lombardi, a spokesman for the Holy See. "I have nothing else to add."
Back in Cuba, many dissidents who had questioned their colleagues' tactics expressed outrage at Ortega's decision, as well as charges by the dissidents that they were denied food for nearly 48 hours.
Well-known blogger Yoani Sanchez tweeted that it was "an embarrassing night" for the church. Elizardo Sanchez, a de facto spokesman for the dissidents and proponent of human rights who is no relation to Yoani, said he was stunned by the cardinal's decision: "I thought they were going to look for other alternatives, like dialogue or mediation."
Ortega's role has been the subject of intense debate in Cuba. Some praise the 75-year-old cardinal for carving out a space for the church in a Communist country that in the past was openly hostile, and for personally mediating with President Castro in 2010 to secure the release of dozens of political prisoners.
Others say Ortega is passive and has grown too close to the government, which considers the dissidents mercenaries and common criminals paid by Washington to stir up trouble. The government had no comment on the raid, but pro-government blogs blamed the dissidents and accused exiles of having a hand in the occupation.
In Miami, filmmaker and political commentator Joe Cardona said the church's decision to call the police was "horrific but not surprising."
"People in Cuba are turning to the church for protection, and the church is turning its back on them because it puts a damper on the pope's visit," said Cardona, a Cuban-American who opposes the U.S. economic embargo on the island.
Pepe Hernandez, head of the Cuban American National Foundation and a decades-long opponent of the Cuban government, said the Church handled the standoff poorly, but he was more understanding of the bind Catholic officials were in.
"Historically the church, and specifically the Catholic Church, has been a refuge and asylum for those who have been persecuted throughout history. That space, which is a sacred space, should be reserved for that, and for those who come to be close to their faith," he said. If not, he warned, whoever has a demand is going to take over a church and stay there. [Now that's a sensible view!]
The Rev. Thomas Moore, senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said that while it is always better to avoid calling the police, the Church does not look kindly on people who try to occupy sacred ground.
"The demonstrators were doing two things: they were using the church to make a political statement, but also they were trying to force the Pope to speak to them," he said. "And I think that was really two strikes against them, trying to tell the Pope what to do."
The Church in Cuba has had to straddle a difficult path of compromise over the past decade since John Paul II's visit, in order to obtain concessions from the government, and Cardinal Ortega has used much of these favors to gain freedom for thousands of political prisoners who are not also facing charges for other crimes.
Surely the dissidents in Cuba who have not been jailed have had to work out their own individual practical compromises in order to avoid arrest and imprisonment. They must have known that the occupy-a-church ploy would not have worked, on practically the very eve of the Pope's visit, because it risked jeopardizing all the arrangements that have been done. It also appears that the treatment Cardinal Ortega got for the occupiers was more than fair.
The dissidents cannot now fault Ortega who has been doing all he can in behalf of all political prisoners regardless of their religion or lack of it. And how do they know that the Pope himself will not have thought about the dissidents enough to inform his hosts in Havana that he does plan to meets some dissident representatives before he leaves Cuba?
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/03/2012 10:34]