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The monsignor and his moment with Castro
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN, Times Staff Writer It was an improbable scene. Fidel Castro stood with Tampa Mayor Dick Greco and a group of local leaders in the lobby of a government building on Revolutionary Plaza in Havana.
"Monsignor," she said, "bless the president there before we leave." Bless Castro? The man who made Cuba an atheist state after becoming the island's communist ruler in 1959? On Tuesday, Higgins confirmed rumors about the unusual scene, which occurred during the Tampa group's trip to Cuba last month. After Mrs. Greco's suggestion, Higgins and Castro looked at each other. Castro, who understands English, nodded his head and said: "Yes." Knowing that Castro was raised Catholic and attended Jesuit schools, Higgins told him: "I will bless you in the native language that you were brought up in." Castro bowed his head.
Then he offered in English: "May God give you strength to do his will. Amen." Castro looked up, took Higgins' hands in his, then embraced him. The Tampa contingent watched the blessing quietly. A few cameras clicked. Higgins, a prominent Catholic leader known as the spiritual go-to guy for Tampa's rich and powerful, asked himself later: "I wondered if anybody ever prayed with him and blessed him, one-on-one (since the revolution)." He also thought about Linda Greco: "She's a brave lady." So how does a monsignor from Tampa end up blessing a man who confiscated church property and once shipped a bishop and 130 clergymen out of his country? An expert on Cuban history says the answer is simple: Castro is 76 years old. "There's an amount of nostalgia going on in his life at this point," said Ann Louise Bardach, who has interviewed Castro twice and whose second book on Cuba, Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana, comes out in October. "He's now old. He needs all the allies he can get." But Bardach didn't think he would go so far as to bow his head for a blessing. "Who knows what (Castro) was doing or thinking," she said. "Prayer seems to me a decidedly un-Castro activity." Castro did plenty of praying growing up. He attended Jesuit schools, once saved a priest from drowning and prayed with nuns. But when he rose to power, Bardach said, he realized that the church was not going to support him. So he tried to abolish it. Cubans are no longer ridiculed or ostracized for praying. But the revolution crippled organized religion, Higgins said. A large number of Cuba's residents were born after Castro took power, and were raised without the Catholic Church. In his historic trip to Cuba in 1998, Pope Paul John II spoke of the need for an expanded role for religion in Cuba. But the state of religion in Cuba is "terrifying," Higgins said. He said he made the trip to see for himself how religion is practiced. He hopes to work church-to-church, without any government intervention. "Personally, I didn't go down to meet Fidel Castro," he said. "That was not my purpose at all." The trip drew criticism from Cuban-American groups that questioned whether visits by officials like the mayor and top business leaders help to legitimize Castro's government. Since returning from the trip, Higgins, 73, said he has received mixed reactions from his parishioners. "Some were upset," he said. "I can understand that. But I think Cuba is on its last legs. They need help." Those who know Higgins say they weren't surprised he took the trip. He mingles with Tampa's elite and is consulted by the powerful. He has been known to join George Steinbrenner in the owner's box at Legend's Field. "He's the best known clergyman in Tampa," says former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman. "He is the most political one that I have ever come across, frankly. He does unusual things." -- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.
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