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Pope to celebrate Mass Friday in Camaguey

Holds 50-minute private meeting with Castro

January 22, 1998
Web posted at: 11:23 p.m. EST (0423 GMT)

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- After sitting down Thursday evening for a face-to-face meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro, Pope John Paul II is preparing to celebrate the second public Mass of his historic journey to the Caribbean nation.

On Friday morning, the pope will travel to the provincial city of Camaguey for a Mass which beings at 10:35 a.m. John Paul will also conduct baptisms and confirmations of the faithful.

In the evening, he will travel to the University of Havana to give a speech and meet with cultural leaders.

The pope's homily (translated into English) 25 min. 00 sec VXtreme streaming video
The Pope's Santa Clara, Cuba Mass
	2.4 MB / 18 sec. / 240x180 700 K / 18 sec. / 160x120 QuickTime movie

Thursday evening, on the second day of his five-day trip, the pope arrived at the Palace of the Revolution, where he was greeted by Castro. The two men made amiable small talk as they walked through the palace to a reception room, where the Cuban and Vatican delegations formally greeted each other.

Without making a formal statement, the pope and Castro then walked to a nearby room, where they sat down to begin their discussions in a closed session.

They emerged about 50 minutes later, and, after exchanging gifts, walked to the top of a grand outdoor staircase, lined with a military honor guard, where they waved for the cameras. Castro then escorted John Paul to his car.

Pope celebrates Mass in Santa Clara

For this mass a special altar was built representing the family home

Earlier Thursday, in a homily given during the pope's first Mass in Cuba, John Paul criticized the communist island's widespread practice of legalized abortion and urged Castro's government to end its monopoly on education and allow the return of Catholic schools.

A flag-waving, hymn-singing crowd that numbered in the tens of thousands packed a sports field in the central city of Santa Clara -- about 160 miles (257 km) east of Havana -- to hear John Paul, occasionally interrupting him with applause.

The crowd cheered wildly as he arrived in his glass-enclosed popemobile and climbed to a thatch-roofed altar platform.

The 77-year-old pope, stooped and frail, flew from Havana -- where he is staying throughout his five-day visit -- to Santa Clara early in the morning. He arrived in Havana from Rome Wednesday.

Abortion 'abominable'

The crowd occasionally interrupted the pontiff with applause and cheers

Taking a message of morality to the Cuban countryside, the pontiff criticized certain societies "where there is even an acceptance of abortion, which is always, in addition to being an abominable crime, a senseless impoverishment of the person and of society itself."

The pope said that too many young people engage in "promiscuous behavior ... and easy recourse to abortion."

Cuba is the only Latin American country with legal abortion on demand, and the number of abortions there recently equaled the number of births.

The government has been trying to discourage the widespread use of abortion as a form of contraception, saying it should be only a last resort for problem pregnancies.

Pope: Parents should pick school

The pope at the Santa Clara mass

Castro's government shut down Cuba's Catholic schools in the early 1960s, and the church since then has sought to regain its role as an educator. The pope took this issue on directly, declaring that the government does not have "the right to take the place of parents."

Parents "should be able to choose for their children the pedagogical method, the ethical and civic content and the religious inspiration which will enable them to receive an integral education," John Paul said.

In the early years of the Cuban revolution, Catholics were discriminated against for practicing their faith, but the church's relations with Castro's government have improved steadily in recent years. The pope's visit has sparked a surge in church attendance.

Castro himself was a product of Catholic schools. But in welcoming the pope to Cuba on Wednesday, Castro noted that the schools he attended were elitist havens for Cuba's white upper class in a largely mulatto and black country.

Cuba puts Mass on live TV

The pope and Fidel Castro exchanged gifts during Thursday's meeting

Among those in the crowd were members of Cuba's national boxing team, dressed in warm-up suits and red-and-white sneakers. "Whether you are religious or not, you are going to get something from this Mass," said Juan Carlos de Delis, a 31-year-old heavyweight.

Santa Clara is the last resting place of revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Above the Mass site, a huge portrait of the pope was erected on a hill where Che's guerrilla forces launched their attack to seize the city in December 1958, a key victory in the revolution that swept Castro to power.

In what appeared a last-minute concession by Cuba, the Mass was broadcast live on Cuban national TV.

The Vatican had pressed Cuban authorities to televise the pontiff's Masses in the provinces to ensure his message could be heard by all Cubans, but as of Wednesday the government had only promised live coverage of John Paul II's arrival and a Mass in Havana on Sunday.

Correspondents Christiane Amanpour and Lucia Newman contributed to this report.

Follow the Pope's visit day-by-day:   Day 1  |  Day 2  |  Day 3  |  Day 4  |  Day 5

Icons at the Crossroads  |  Cuba and Catholicism  |  An Exile Returns
Testing the Embargo  |  Live Webcasts  |  The Struggling Revolution  |  Related links

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