Cuba needs a leader who is young, pragmatic, female and concerned with family, said a Catholic writer and dissident exiled in Mexico.

"(Cuban President Fidel) Castro's successor should be young, between 30 and 40, and should live in Cuba and not in Miami, Mexico or Madrid, and he should be a woman," said Jose Prats Sariol, who escaped from Cuba in 2003. Prats worked with the Catholic publication Vitral of the Diocese of Pinar del Rio, Cuba.

"The younger generation is not poisoned by hatred of the West and this dream of socialist revolution," he told Catholic News Service. "They are very pragmatic; they want an open society that will enable a modern Cuba to face two challenges, one economic and the other psychological.

"Decades of economic hardship and Marxist indoctrination laid the groundwork for a very romantic, rosy perception of life in the free West," he said. "Many think that the world outside of Cuba is one big, wonderful supermarket where you can buy anything you want and don't have to pay."

Castro ceded power temporarily July 31 to his younger brother, Raul Castro. Castro, who has been in power for 47 years, said in a statement Aug. 1 that his health is stable after a serious operation.

Prats said that "as a consequence of the atheistic education, we now have a society in which family values, the family bond, have ceased to exist. I am convinced that only a woman's sensitivity can rebuild the foundation of the family."

Although she is not in the younger generation at 61 years old, Martha Beatriz Roque would be a worthy candidate to lead Cuba, Prats said. Roque is a rights activist and head of the Assembly for the Promotion of Civil Society, an organization which unites about 300 opposition groups in Cuba. However some Cubans have reservations about her connection with the United States.

Prats said he is optimistic about the church's role during Cuba's potential transition.

"Through Caritas (Internationalis) the church has done a lot to alleviate the misery of many Cubans," he said.

Although the church is hindered in its effort to evangelize since it is not permitted to operate its own radio station, Catholics open their homes for religious meetings and there are several Catholic publications, usually small diocesan newspapers, he said.

Miami bishops ask prayers
Meanwhile, bishops of the Archdiocese of Miami asked Catholics in their archdiocese to pray for Cuba after Fidel Castro transferred power to his brother, Raul, following surgery for intestinal bleeding.

"May Our Lady of Charity unify all Cubans and protect them from evil so that freedom, justice, truth and peace may triumph," said the Aug. 1 statement, signed by Archbishop John C. Favalora, Auxiliary Bishops John G. Noonan and Felipe J. Estevez, and retired Auxiliary Bishop Agustin A. Roman.

Bishop Roman is a native of Cuba who was expelled as a priest in 1961. Bishop Estevez, also a Cuban native, left in 1961 as one of 14,000 teenagers in a Catholic humanitarian program called Operation Pedro Pan.

"The free Cuban people are watching with caution and attention the events related to the government on the island" nation of Cuba, the statement said.

"The Archdiocese of Miami shares this hour with our Cuban brothers and sisters. We invite all to be calm, to exercise good judgment and to intensify their prayers for the good of Cuba so that these long suffering people may live in a society where all rights are respect(ed)," it said.

In an Aug. 1 statement from Castro read on Cuban state television, he said his condition was stable but that the full extent of his illness would not be known for several days. Raul Castro, Cuba's defense minister, was put in charge of the country. Fidel Castro's recovery would likely take weeks, according to doctors outside of Cuba.

Cuban-Americans, many of whom live in the Miami area, have long wanted to see Fidel Castro out of power. Some expressed hope that this would be the end of communist rule in Cuba.

President George W. Bush said July 31, before Castro's illness became known, the United States was "actively working for change in Cuba, not simply waiting for change."

-- CNS