Latin American Bishops meet with Cuban government:

Avoid human rights discussions
HAVANA (AP) July 14th. - Roman Catholic cardinals and bishops from across Latin America and top Cuban officials discussed how to improve relations between the church and the communist government but avoided thorny topics such as human rights and free speech.
The closed-door talks took place during a four-day Latin American Bishops Conference, which brought about 70 bishops from the region to Havana and ended Friday. Conference President Raymundo Damasceno Assis, archbishop of the Brazilian shrine city of Aparecida, said four cardinals and several bishops met with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage and other officials.
«It was the first dialogue, the first of what we hope will be many between the church and the government,» Assis said at a news conference Friday. Bishop Emilio Aranguren, of the Cuban province of Holguin, said the meeting further improved a relationship that is «purifying itself of prejudices. He said Cuban officials agreed to allow Catholic leaders to provide religious instruction to foreign youngsters who come to the island as exchange students. Both sides also discussed the possibility of easing bans on Catholic and other religious schools. Aranguren said the church also asked the government to allow its leaders to play a more active role in prisons, not only ministering to those behind bars but also their families.
Catholic officials here have long avoided criticizing the Cuban government for alleged human rights abuses, such as the jailing of critics and restrictions on access to information, free speech and travel for Cubans. In the past, however, church leaders have asked authorities to allow some religious services and events to be aired on government-controlled radio and television.
But Aranguren said neither topic came up at the meeting. «We conversed about the issues that really mattered to the bishops who were present,» he said. The bishops conference said Friday it had received several letters from activists, including the wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners, decrying human rights abuses on the island. The bishops turned the missives over to local Catholic leaders, but took no further action.
While most Cubans are nominally Catholic, the country was officially atheist for years, until relations between the church and the government began to warm in the early 1990s. Cuba eventually allowed religious believers of all faiths to join the Communist Party for the first time and Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit the island in 1998. The Cuban government did not officially comment on its meeting with the bishops, which occurred Wednesday but was not made public until Friday. A story in the Communist Party newspaper Granma, however, called the discussions "cordial and constructive".
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