Vatican Lays Groundwork For Castro Visit

In what Roman Catholic church officials and diplomats describe as a prelude to a possible meeting next month between Pope John Paul II and President Fidel Castro of Cuba, the Vatican’s minister of foreign relations is in Cuba on a five-day visit that, in a reversal of attitude, government officials there have openly welcomed.

Upon his arrival in Havana, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican’s senior diplomat, said he bore “a cordial salute” from John Paul for “all of the Cuban people.” But he has been spending much of his time behind closed doors, working out the details of a potential encounter between the aging communist leader and the Polish-born pontiff, who helped bring about the collapse of Marxism-Leninism in Eastern Europe.

Cuban government officials have been saying privately for months that Castro is likely to go to Rome in November to attend a five-day conference sponsored by the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization. According to both church leaders and diplomats, the likelihood the Cuban leader will be granted a papal audience during his stay there is high.