EDITORIAL : HARBINGER OF FREEDOM?; POPE'S VISIT MAY ACCELERATE CHANGE IN CUBA.

CUBAN dictator Fidel Castro has ridiculed suggestions that the visit by Pope John Paul II beginning today will have any political impact on his time-warped Caribbean police state.

Instead, Castro hopes to exploit the pope's visit for his own political advantage by capitalizing on the pontiff's opposition to the United States' embargo on Cuba.

Frankly, we side with the pope on the embargo issue. We believe that the embargo has been counterproductive, accomplishing little other than to make life more miserable for the downtrodden Cuban people and damage relations between Washington and its allies.

The embargo, however, is only a means - albeit a mistaken one - to a positive end. The fundamental goal of American policy is to end Castro's tyranny and help Cuba join the growing family of democratic nations worldwide.

We are confident that the pope shares that goal as well. He has been a formidable opponent of communist oppression for decades. In fact, freedom frequently has followed the pope during his many travels around the world.

The pontiff, first as an archbishop and later as a cardinal, was an inspiration for freedom-loving people in his native Poland in their struggle against communist tyranny. As pope, he witnessed the liberation of Poland and other former Warsaw Pact nations - and, finally, the collapse and breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega said Monday in connection with the pope's visit that ``time will not move backward.''

We are convinced that time is on the side of Pope John Paul II and the forces of democracy, not Fidel Castro.