Distributed by The Cuba Free Press Project.

Havana, January 28, 1998, Cuba Press

Outside the Holy Card. By Ernestina Rosell, Cuba Press.

Cuba is fertile ground for miracles these days: Our Lady of Charity repeats the invasion; Jesus Christ takes the Plaza of the Revolution; the Pope becomes the main actor in the country.

After almost 40 years (Almost half a century!), exceptional events are taking place in the country that, because they are so unusual, have caused a great deal of surprise, even shock in all this realm of microuniverses of individualism, which we group as a bunch, citizens, fellow Cubans, and which we call....the People.

Perhaps you have to experience it yourself to understand, in all its magnitude, the consequences of Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba.

Perhaps you also have to have suffered, for so many years, the feeling of marginalization, due to your religious faith, in a country which was declared socialist since 1961, when faith was reduced to the churches and where, to be a practicing Christian -- in the best of circumnstances-- represents a stigma, an exclusion from society.

When the barrage of posters asking for blessings for the Cuban, with the image of the Pope embracing The Cross appeared, it came as a symbol of the break with prohibitions.

The stream of surprises was not long in following.

After four decades of captivity, in something akin to house-arrest in her sanctuary, Our Lady of Charity -- Cuba's Patron Sain't -- was victoriously paraded from East to West, followed by the people who would throw flowers at her feet, waved white handkerchiefs in the air, and lit candles in her path.

Her humble and patient wait, along with her perseverance in consoling the people, was awarded with her coronation: The Captive Queen once again became the Queen of the open Heavens.

As if a single voice, the ringing of the Ave Marias and the Our Father in the open air, filled the roads and streets, and spread throughout the land: "The most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen!" It purified the Cuban atmosphere.

A weird sensation of surreality filled the hearts and minds of children and youth as, with a mix of incredulity and joy in the face, we again celebrated, beyond the Church and the homes, our beloved Christmas, abolished until then, officially erased from the face of the Island.

The climate of chain reaction is one difficult to describe: Every Cuban received the welcome news, as a flash, from the mouth of Cardinal Jaime Ortega -- accompanied by Our Lady of Charity on his right -- through Cuban television, indeed a powerful means of communication, whose sole ownership and control lies in the hands of the Cuban government.

However, all of these things had only a preliminary impact, preceding as they were the Holy Father's visit.

The great welcome that the Cuban people gave the Pope was not, precisely, a show of civility, but a proof of their faith, the evidence that the overwhelming majority of Cubans believe -- regardless of their denomination--, but that many, forced by the policies of the government, have had to hide it or even deny it.

In the welcome, as in all the masses presided by the Pope, attendance was spontaneous, voluntary. Nobody, unlike what happens at official government functions, controlled their presence through the neighborhood watch committees, or the Party Sindicate. Hence the sweet and natural joy in the faces of those present; It flowed from their soul and their spirit.

After having watched -- almost in ecstasy for the first time in all my life -- the giant billboard with Jesus Christ at the capital's Plaza of the Revolution -- a place which is only used for slogans and chants against Christianity -- We can truly say that Love overcame Hatred in my country, if only for a few days.

For those who doubted that something would happen in Cuba when Pope John Paul II visited, these things are evidence that something is already happening.

Don't allow anyone to fool you: This has not been the work of any government leader; this has been the work of a Divine Power. Only the Cuban government -- like the people often say -- did not want to stay out of the holy cards.

By Ernestina Rosell, Cuba Press.