CUBA: Cuba's Cardinal Jaime Ortega yesterday urged Cubans to pray for President Fidel Castro, while across the Florida Straits, some churchgoers asked God to help their homeland but excluded the man they revile from their prayers.
Cardinal Ortega, presiding over Mass at Havana's colonial-style cathedral, read a statement urging the faithful "to pray that God accompany President Fidel Castro in his illness and illuminate those who have provisionally received the responsibilities of government".
In Miami, hundreds of exiles danced in the streets last week when they heard Castro was seriously ill.
Some churchgoers said they often prayed for Cuba and Cubans, but not for its leader. "We pray for liberty for Cuba," said Eugene Brito (78), an usher at SS Peter and Paul Catholic church in Little Havana, the heart of the 650,000-strong Cuban-American community and centre of opposition to Castro. "The church asks us to pray even for our enemies, but I don't do it."
Castro, who was educated by Jesuits, expelled Catholic priests at the start of his revolution. Under communism, Cuba officially became an atheist state. He eased repression in the 1990s.