"Keeler's visit to Cuba is a show of 'solidarity'." The Baltimore Sun, 31 December 1997.

Keeler's visit to Cuba is a show of 'solidarity'; Cardinal's arrival before pope's visit is simple, low-key

Associated Press

December 31, 1997

HAVANA -- Carrying a small donation of antibiotics and vitamins for Cuba's needy, Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore arrived in Havana yesterday for a New Year's visit to show his support for Cuban Roman Catholics.

"I come to show solidarity with Cardinal [Jaime] Ortega and the people of Cuba as they greet the New Year and prepare for the visit of the Holy Father," Keeler said after he and five others stepped off a small jet that arrived under cloudy skies in the late afternoon from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

"People of faith are looking forward to a messenger of faith and hope," the prelate said of Pope John Paul II's Jan. 21-25 visit to Cuba.

Keeler, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was greeted at the airport by his longtime friend Ortega, archbishop of Havana. Just four Cuban church officials turned out for Keeler's arrival. The greeting was simple and low-key, with no government officials and no members of the state-controlled media, though other news people were there.

"This is a visit of two friends, with Cardinal Keeler returning the visit that Cardinal Ortega made to Baltimore earlier this year," said Rolando Suarez, director of the Roman Catholic charity Caritas Cuba.

Suarez said that relations between the Cuban and American churches have increased in recent years, in large part through the relationship between Caritas Cuba and its American counterpart, Catholic Relief Services.

Last year alone, Caritas Cuba received about $ 4 million in medicines from CRS, he said.

Keeler and Ortega have known each other for years through periodic meetings of bishops around the Americas and became cardinals at the same time.

After Ortega visited Keeler in Baltimore this year, Ortega invited Keeler to Cuba for what Keeler said was purely a pastoral visit.

Keeler plans to travel today to the western province of Pinar del Rio, a heavily Catholic region, to celebrate a New Year's Eve Mass.

Tomorrow, he was to return to Havana to celebrate a solemn New Year's Day Mass with Ortega in the Havana Cathedral.

The American prelate was to return to Baltimore via Fort Lauderdale on Friday.

During his stay, Keeler was expected to share his experiences with Ortega about handling a papal visit. Keeler oversaw much of the preparations two years ago when Pope John Paul visited Baltimore.

"I see an enormous positive interest in the pope's visit" to Cuba, Keeler said. A papal visit "is a very energizing experience. It offers Catholics a sense of belonging."

Keeler is not expected to return to Cuba for the papal visit because of his involvement in planning a large anti-abortion march in the United States.

The American cardinal was accompanied on his four-day visit by Kenneth Hackett, executive director of CRS, who came to show his support of Caritas Cuba.

Founded five years ago, Caritas Cuba has an annual budget of about $ 5 million and 3,000 volunteers who help provide medicines to the ailing, milk and other assistance to the elderly, and meals to needy children.

Fidel Castro's Communist government officially embraced atheism in 1962, and in the years that followed many churchgoers stopped attending religious services for fear of not being seen as sufficiently "revolutionary."

But state-church relations have warmed in recent years.

Relations have improved even more during the past month with Castro's declaration of Christmas this year as an official holiday and the recent publication of Pope John Paul's Christmas message to the Cubans people on the front page of the Communist daily Granma.