Cuba under Fidel Castro’s rule has always been a mysterious thorn in the side of the United States, especially the leadership of the U.S. government. We could never seem to look past Castro to the bigger picture of dealing with the island nation 90 miles off the Florida coast.

Perhaps it was due to the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, Castro’s alignment with the old Soviet Union and the 1962 Cuban missile crises that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. Maybe it was due to the large Cuban-American population in Florida and the strong anti-Castro feelings they have.

Whatever the reasons, this dictator of an impoverished country continued to get under our skin, even after the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union broke up and the communism collapsed in Europe. Castro’s Cuba remained a perceived enemy who was considered a threat to the world’s only superpower and a country to be kept in isolation.

But not everyone saw it this way. Ironically, it took Pope John Paul II, who was instrumental in communism’s demise in Europe, to look past Castro to the bigger picture.

John Paul visited Cuba in 1998 in one of his most historic world trips. With Castro looking on, the pope prodded the communist regime to improve its human rights record. But the pope also had words for the United States about its policies and dealings with Cuba.

The pope said at the end of his five-day Cuban trip: “The Cuban people ... cannot be denied the contacts with other peoples necessary for economic, social and cultural development, especially when the imposed isolation strikes the population indiscriminately, making it ever more difficult for the weakest to enjoy the bare essentials of decent living, things such as food, health and education. All can and should take practical steps to bring about changes in this regard.”

John Paul did not specifically mention the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba in that talk. But he did call for a change in this policy at a press conference en route to Cuba. “Perhaps both the United States and Cuba are searching for a better future,” he said.

That was 10 years ago, and things have not changed substantially. However, now that Castro has stepped down as leader of Cuba, maybe the door is open to change — to ending the U.S. embargo, travel restrictions and isolation of Cuba.

The U.S. bishops have been among those who for a number of years have called for ending the nearly 50-year economic embargo and relaxing sanctions against Cuba. “These policies have largely failed to achieve greater freedom, democracy and respect for human rights,” Bishop Thomas G. Wenski, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, wrote in a letter to Rep. Charles B. Rangel last March.

Bishop Wenski said the U.S.’s “counterproductive policies have unnecessarily alienated many in the hemisphere who should be our friends and allies and brought needless hardship on the Cuban people.”

He added: “It continues to be our (bishops’) position that the goals of improving the lives of the Cuban people and encouraging democracy in Cuba will best be advanced through more rather than less contacts between the Cuban and American people.”

Last week, more than 100 members of Congress called for a change in U.S. policy in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The trade policy “serves neither the U.S. national interest” nor that of the average Cuban, the letter said.

“For five decades, U.S. policy has tried economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation to force changes in Cuba’s government,” the lawmakers wrote. “The policy has not worked.”

Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat of Massachusetts, described U.S. policy toward Cuba “a relic of the Cold War” that “makes no sense.” And Sen. Mike Enzi, a Republican of Wyoming, said unilateral “boycotts and sanctions don’t work.”

The Bush Administration has indicated that no changes in U.S. policy are forthcoming. President George W. Bush last week urged Cuba to release political prisoners and said U.S. policy was not changing unless democracy came to Cuba.

For some, it’s still hard to see past Castro when it comes to relations with Cuba. Yet the perspective of Pope John Paul II will not go away — nor should it.

When asked a decade ago what the United States should do about its embargo of Cuba, he replied, “Change, change.”