Apart from these incidents, there were no reports of religious detainees or prisoners. Prison authorities routinely denied religious workers access to detainees and prisoners. In Cienfuegos prison, the authorities repeatedly refused to allow priests access to political prisoners, such as Benito Fojaco, even though the priests occasionally were allowed to enter the prison. Roca's request for baptism was granted only after direct appeals to Cardinal Jaime Ortega and the Vatican. Garcia Perez ended the strike after prison officials agreed to allow a priest to visit him.
Education is secular.
Students who profess a belief in religion continue to be stigmatized by other students and teachers and have been disciplined formally for wearing crucifixes, and for bringing Bibles or other religious materials to school. The Pope celebrated public Masses in front of hundreds of thousands of persons in Havana, Villa Clara, Camaguey and Santiago de Cuba, which were televised nationally. In his 11 discourses while in the country, the Pope emphasized the need to allow fundamental freedoms, to respect human rights, and to foster the development of independent civil society. In response to a papal request for clemency, the Government released some 300 prisoners from jails across the island, including a little over 100 political prisoners. The Government continued to limit strictly the Church's access to the media and refused to allow the Church to have an independent printing capability.