VARIOUS: Different prayers for Cuba in Havana, Miami; USA not stoking political crisis in Cuba, Rice says.

Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega urged Cubans to pray for their ailing president on Sunday (August 05), one day after Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said in Bolivia that an ageing and ailing Fidel Castro was recovering and could return to power in a few weeks. Government sources also said on Sunday that Castro was well enough to be eating and sitting up, but he has not been seen in public since July 26. Ortega, presiding over mass at the Havana's colonial-style cathedral, read a statement from Cuba's bishops urging the faithful "to pray that God accompany President Fidel Castro in his illness and illuminate those who have provisionally received the responsibilities of government." Cardinal Ortega, who was sent to a labor camp for his religious beliefs as a young priest, has criticized Castro's social and economic policies for undermining family values and causing an exodus of Cubans. But the archbishop has kept the church out of politics and resisted calls from dissidents that it adopt a more critical stance. "The Catholic church would never support nor accept in the most minimal way any foreign intervention-never," he said. Government sources said Castro could return to power in several weeks. "He (Fidel Castro) doesn't have cancer," said Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage in Bolivia. "He's been operated on, as has been explained in the explanatory note. The operation was successful and he's recovering." Dissidents also turned to their faith for hope and comfort during the time of uncertainty. "What the Cuban church asked was, if I heard it right, it asked God to accompany the President in his illness and I think that all Christians, people of all religions, even non-believers… well, that's understandable, it's an ill person," said dissident Miriam Leyva outside of church. "We don't desire anything bad for anyone. To the contrary and, in case… Well, we also ask that God illuminate the new leaders of Cuba." Dressed in white and carrying white flowers, Leyva then joined the other dissident women who walked in silent protest on Havana's Fifth Avenue for the release of their imprisoned husbands. Thousands have been arrested during Castro's regime and imprisoned for political reasons. While across the Florida Straits, some churchgoers in Miami asked God to help their homeland but excluded the reviled leader from their prayers. Meanwhile speaking from Crawford, Texas, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice beamed a new call for democracy in the island and insisted that the message the United States is trying to convey to the Cuban people is that change is clearly underway and the United States is not trying to stoke a sense of crisis or instability in Cuba. "I want to lay one thing to rest, the notion that the United States is going to invade Cuba because there are troubles in Cuba is simple far-fetched, it's simply not true. The United States wants to be a partner and a friend for the Cuban people as they move through this period of difficulty and as they move ahead. But what Cuba should not have is the replacement of one dictator by another," Rice stated. In Miami, a small group of Cubans led by Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the exile group Democracy Movement, gathered at a Little Havana cemetery and held hands in a circle to pray for Cubans who died trying to leave the country. The Cuban exile group pays for their burial. "I've been celebrating and I'm still celebrating Cuba's transition towards a democratic system, something that will clearly happen, definitely happen. Whether Fidel Castro is dying or not is not that crucial. What's important is that the process has already begun," said Norman del Valle, from Democracy Movement agreeing with Secretary Rice. Rice also reissued her appeal for Cubans to work for a democratic transition in the island instead of massively leaving for the U.S. "The U.S. really feels very strongly that their future is at home and mass exodus is not to be expected nor would it be condoned," she said. The admonition comes as three men await trial for a July 2006 deadly attempt to smuggle 29 Cubans across the sea. The smugglers rammed their speedboat into a US Coast Guard ship, killing one of the would-be migrants. Several of the Cubans who survived that voyage gathered at the Monument to Dead Rafters in Miami to pray and pay their respects to the dead. Meanwhile, well-wishes continued to stream in from communist supporters across the world. In Managua, Nicaragua, Tomas Borge, a Sandinista leader, said Castro would never die but would haunt the streets of Cuba forever. "I saw in the press yesterday where there are people who wish for the death of Fidel Castro," Borge said at a mass, "but they don't realize that Fidel will be like the 'Cid campeador' ("Cid the Campion, historical Spanish medieval figure). The day that he dies, he will mount his horse and parade down the streets and walkways of Cuba, directing the Cuban people and conquering new victories. Don't doubt it for a minute. Fidel will never die!" Castro eased restrictions on religion in the 1990s when Havana began to seek a visit by the late Pope John Paul, and in 1992 the Constitution was changed to make Cuba a secular state and to forbid religious discrimination. The church says about half of the Caribbean island's 11.2 million people are Roman Catholic.

ITN Source | August 7, 2006

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