-DATE-
19851129
-YEAR-
1985
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
MESSAGE
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO LIKENS CHRISTIANITY, CUBAN STATE
-PLACE-
HAVANA, CUBA
-SOURCE-
PRENSA LATINA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19851202
-TEXT-
CASTRO LIKENS CHRISTIANITY, CUBAN STATE

PA292138 Havana PRENSA LATINA in English 2053 GMT 29 Nov 85 -- FOR OFFICIAL
USE ONLY

[All quotation marks as received]

[Text] Havana, Nov 29 (PL) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro considers there
are many common things between the doctrines of the church and the
revolution.

That opinion is expressed in the book "Fidel Castro and Religion", based on
an interview given by Fidel Castro to Brazilian Dominican theologist Fray
Betto (Frei Betto), which will be presented in its Cuban edition during the
opening of "the second meeting of intellectuals for the sovereignty of the
peoples of our America."

The book, which is a result of 23 hours of talks, in four different
sessions, was already published in Brazil becoming a best-seller in a few
weeks. Fidel Castro explained that all the commandments of the law of God
could be perfectly subscribed to Cuba, referring as example, to the
principle of "do not steal", which is one of the characteristics of the
Cuban revolution, which has eliminated robbery, corruption and
misappropriation.

He said that among the things mainly rejected by the revolution is the use
of lies, and regarding "to love your neighbor as thyself", that is what is
precisely predicated "through the feeling of human solidarity which is the
essence of socialism and communism".

If the church has said, for example, "do not desire your neighbor's wife",
we consider that one of the ethical elements of relations among
revolutionaries is precisely, the principles of respect to the family and
to the wife of others....", he pointed out.

Fidel Castro mentioned the missioners [as received] and the
internationalist and set the example of the 2,000 Cuban teachers who went
to Nicaragua and "lived under very tough conditions together with the
Nicaraguan peasant families". He referred to the hypocrisy of some
supposedly devout figures, among who is the head of the Chilean regime,
Augusto Pinochet, "who has on his conscience the death of thousands of
people", and he recalled the false statements of the U.S. Government about
South America, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cuba as well as the death of
millions of people during the Vietnam war, which was also born from lies".
One thing is really clear there is a great amount of hyprocrisy among all
those people, who have many times even evoked the name of God to carry out
those crimes". [sentence as received]

Fidel Castro said that if the church was to organize a state according to
Christian principles "it would organize a state such as ours". Regarding
this he said Cuba had irradicated [as received] gambling, drugs,
prostitution and unemployment, there are no beggers on the streets, no
abandoned children or elders, or any other problems that would not be
accepted in a state ruled by Christian principles.

"All that against which we have fought, all those problems we have
resolved, would be the same ones which the church would resolve if it were
to organize a civil state according the principles of Christianism",
stressed Fidel Castro.

-END-