What social fabric is there in Cuba?
- None outside the Party organisations. There is no bourgeoisie, there is no press, people are unaware of dissidents. There is only the Church, which is not like the Mexican Church or the Polish Church in the 1970s, but was always weak, even before the revolution. But it is the only one that can mediate for the future.

Have things changed with Raúl Castro?
- Yes, even in temperament he is different from Fidel. He allows Caritas to distribute meals to the hungry in certain parishes. Fidel would not have allowed it: the state is supposed to provide for everyone. Yet barely a thousand children go to Catholic schools, and in fact only in a few small rural schools.

When will change come?
- In my opinion, when immigration reform is achieved, we will be able to say that change is serious. That, and facilitating investment, facilitating the flow of financial aid of relatives and reuniting and reconciling families. In this way, the state will give back to the family a space it has usurped.

What is the Church's strategy?
- The Church does not want unbridled liberalism with the dictatorship of the market, just as it does not want the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Pope speaks of a "third way", which in reality is the Social Doctrine of the Church, which admits various forms. The Cubans themselves must concretise the exact model , the Church suggests.

What role does the Christian Liberation Movement play?
- Of Christian inspiration, it is the largest and best organised group . Its project Varela is feasible: to change the Cuban Constitution using the Constitution itself. Its leader, Oswaldo Payá, is an emblematic figure even if he does not have the profile of a politician as we are used to in Europe.

Why hasn't the regime dismantled the Ladies in White?
- Cardinal Ortega managed to get the state to tolerate them when they go to mass at Santa Rita. It seems certain that the bishops will give the Pope DVDs with the history and message of the Ladies in White.