Pope appeals to Castro for leniency with dissidents

VATICAN CITY -- Deeply dismayed by Cuba's crackdown on dissent, Pope John Paul II decried harsh sentences handed down against the island's dissidents and implored Fidel Castro to show leniency.

In a letter made public Saturday, the pontiff also denounced the execution of three men who seized a ferry in a failed bid to reach the United States.

The plea was conveyed to Castro on April 13 -- Palm Sunday -- two days after a firing squad killed the men, who had commandeered the boat and its 50 passengers in Havana Bay on April 2.

A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the letter had not been publicized to give Castro a chance to respond. Apparently, there was no answer.

Cuba has come under heavy world criticism for sentencing 75 dissidents to prison terms ranging from six to 28 years on charges they collaborated with American diplomats to subvert the island nation's socialist system.

Castro has taken a hard stand. On Friday, he accused the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba of stirring up subversive activities by opponents of his government. He has defended the executions as necessary to halt what he called a brewing migration crisis provoked by the United States.

Dissidents and diplomats have denied the accusations.

The Vatican said the pontiff, upon learning of "the heavy sentences inflicted on a significant group of Cuban dissidents," asked the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, to express John Paul's "deep sorrow" in a letter to Castro.

The letter, in Spanish, began with Easter greetings to the traditionally Catholic nation.

"The Holy Father felt deeply pained when he learned of the harsh sentences recently imposed on numerous Cuban citizens, and, even, for some of them, the death penalty," Sodano wrote. "In the face of these facts, His Holiness gave me the task of asking Your Excellency to give full consideration to a significant gesture of clemency toward those convicted."

Showing leniency, the letter said, "will contribute to create a climate of greater detente to the benefit of the dear Cuban people," whom the pope visited in 1998 in a historic pilgrimage.

"I am sure that you also share with me the conviction that only a sincere and constructive confrontation between the citizens and the civil authorities can guarantee the promotion of a modern and democratic state in a Cuba ever more united and fraternal," Sodano concluded.

The Holy See has faced some criticism in Italy for failing to speak out enough about Cuba, though the Vatican's newspaper has described the executions as a "sad development."

The pope is a staunch opponent of the death penalty, and on occasion has appealed to authorities to call off scheduled executions, including some in the United States.

He has championed human rights throughout his papacy. After the pontiff's visit to Cuba, Castro released 299 prisoners.

During his 1998 visit to Nigeria, Vatican officials pressed for the release of some 60 prominent Nigerians, including political opponents and journalists.

Cuba's own bishops have been among Castro's critics. In March, they urged authorities to accept differing political opinions. The church itself has been struggling to strengthen its place in Cuba, which in the past has expelled foreign priests and closed parish schools.

There have been some advances. After the pope's visit, Christmas was made an official holiday again.

And Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega, viewed by some as a contender to be the next pope, has gained some access to Cuba's mass media as he tries to regain ground lost by the church after the revolution which brought Castro to power more than 40 years ago. Ortega himself spent a year in a labor camp.

After the pope's appeal, Joe Garcia, executive director of the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation, called John Paul "a moral authority in a country that lacks total morality."