Castro Keeps His Religious Beliefs To Himself Says He ‘Respects’ Those Who Believe, Those Who Don’t

Does President Fidel Castro, whose communist government long had professed atheism, believe in God?

He’s not saying.

“Are you priests? Confessors?” Castro replied when asked that question Sunday. “Those are my intimate affairs, and I don’t accept that you have me make that kind of public confession.”

Castro spoke after voting in parliamentary elections in this eastern Cuban city. Many questions he was asked dealt with Pope John Paul II’s visit to Cuba on Jan. 21-25.

“I can say one thing,” Castro said. “I respect those who believe and those who do not believe.

“If you say you do not believe, you offend those who believe,” he added. “If you say you believe, you offend those who do not believe. In a way, you make yourself a preacher. I am not a preacher.”

Cuba’s communist government officially was atheist from 1962 to 1992 and banned religious believers from the armed forces, some professions and the military.

But relations with Roman Catholic and Protestant leaders have improved in recent years.

Castro also criticized President Clinton’s recent expression of hope that the pope can persuade Castro to change his political system.

“The pope is a very firm man, a person I appreciate and respect. I don’t have the least indication that the pope harbors the intention of convincing me to stop being a patriot, to stop being a revolutionary.”