Pope pushes for change in Cuba, gov't rebuffs

Pope Benedict stepped up his calls for change and a greater role for the Catholic Church in communist-run Cuba on Tuesday but was quickly rebuffed by a senior government official who ruled out political reforms in the one-party state.   

As the pope's trip drew to a close and Benedict met with President Raul Castro, the Vatican also disclosed it had made a "humanitarian request" to Havana, raising speculation that it might be seeking the release of political prisoners or jailed American Alan Gross.   

Meeting Castro at the Palace of the Revolution, Benedict also asked the Cuban leader to consider making Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Christ's death, a national holiday, just as Castro's older brother Fidel re-instated Christmas as a holiday when Pope John Paul visited in 1998.   

Former leader Fidel Castro said in a column published Tuesday night in www.cubadebate.cu he would meet with the pope briefly on Wednesday before the pontiff goes back to Rome.    

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters that Fidel Castro, who ruled Cuba for 49 years before age and illness forced him to step down fours year ago in favor of his younger brother, did not attend the talks and it was still unknown if he would meet the German pope.   

Cuban television showed Raul Castro and Benedict going in and out of private talks that lasted less than an hour, but they did not speak to the press.   

Benedict arrived for the second papal trip to Cuba in history at a time when Raul Castro has initiated reforms to the country's Soviet-style economy with the aim of strengthening communism for the future.   

He is encouraging more private enterprise and reducing the state's role, which includes the slashing of 1 million jobs from government payrolls, which is about 20 percent of Cuba's total workforce of 5.2 million.   

To help deal with dislocation from the reforms, Raul Castro has embraced the Church as interlocutor on social issues and improved relations that were sour for decades after Cuba's 1959 revolution.   

Some Cubans have expressed hope that economic changes would be accompanied by political change in the country where the only legal political party is the Communist Party, but Marino Murillo, a vice president in the Council of Ministers and the country's economic reforms czar, told reporters that was not in the cards.

Reuters