By Karen DeYoung and Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday , April 17, 2000 ; A03

As they waited for a court decision that could come today, the two sides of the Elian Gonzalez controversy turned to two
traditional Sunday venues--church and television--to press their cases.

Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and his family received a standing ovation from 1,000 parishioners when they entered
Shiloh Baptist Church in the District's Shaw neighborhood. Gonzalez told the congregation from the podium: "My family, the
people of Cuba--my son Elian, especially--we really appreciate the support you have offered us."

In Miami, rosaries were draped across police barricades holding back a growing crowd of hundreds of people in the streets
around the house of Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez. Under skies that were alternately sunny and purple with storm
clouds, ice cream vendors played carnival-style music, well-dressed families held a Palm Sunday Mass, and tourists in jeans
and T-shirts wandered through asking for directions to "Elian's house."

In one of a series of last-ditch efforts to retain custody of Elian after he defied a government order to surrender the 6-year-old
last Thursday, Lazaro Gonzalez wrote an "open letter to the government" Friday asking for all action in the case to be
suspended during Holy Week.

That appeared unlikely, however. "I don't think, frankly, that the [Miami] family has much standing to make those kinds of
requests," White House Chief of Staff John D. Podesta said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "Once the 11th Circuit's
ruled, I think the government is prepared to effectuate a return of Elian to the custody of his father, where he belongs."

The federal appeals court, located in Atlanta, is believed to have spent the weekend considering a petition from Lazaro
Gonzalez for an injunction preventing Elian from leaving the country. Although the issue of his possible departure has no direct
bearing on the question of custody, the Justice Department said it would not move to enforce its Thursday order transferring
custody of Elian to his father until the court ruled.

The government asked the court not only to reject the injunction, but also to affirm its order and instruct Lazaro Gonzalez to
turn over Elian to his father. The government said that, if he cooperates, it would use its administrative power to ensure that the
boy does not leave the United States until Lazaro Gonzalez's appeal of a previous federal court ruling upholding the custody
order is heard next month. The father's attorney has said the father has agreed.

On television yesterday, several attorneys for the Miami relatives broadly hinted, and in some cases said directly, that Juan
Miguel Gonzalez is an unfit father who beat his son and first wife. One suggested, then said he hadn't meant to, that there was
sexual abuse involved.

For most of the nearly five months that Elian has been in their custody, Lazaro Gonzalez and other relatives in Miami described
Juan Miguel Gonzalez as a good and loving father they wanted to move to the United States and stay with his son. As their
possession of the boy has become more tenuous, however--particularly since the federal court case was lost--and the father
has repeated his intention to return to Cuba with Elian, they have referred to evidence of abuse. They have said such evidence
could only be revealed in the preferred venue of a Florida family court, which they believe would be more sympathetic to them.

The Justice Department believes that it has already reviewed virtually all information gathered by the relatives to bolster their
claims and has dismissed it as hearsay from former neighbors of the Gonzalezes in Cardenas, Cuba, who now live in Miami.

In an interview last night on CBS's "60 Minutes," Juan Miguel Gonzalez angrily denied that he had ever hit Elian or his mother
or abused them in any way. In fact, he turned the accusation on the boy's Miami relatives.

"This is child abuse and mistreatment what they're doing to this boy," Gonzalez said. "The way they're abusing him, turning him
against his father . . . he's suffering more here amongst them than he suffered in the sea."

Elian saw his mother drown after their small boat, in which the two of them and 11 others were trying to reach the United
States, capsized and sank. He floated in an inner tube for two days before being found off the Fort Lauderdale coast by two
fishermen on Nov. 25.

Attorneys for the relatives said yesterday that Lazaro Gonzalez was not violating the law because he cannot be made to deliver
Elian to a location away from the demonstrators in his neighborhood. He has said repeatedly that he would not resist if federal
agents came to take the boy--something the government is reluctant to do out of fear of crowd violence and the possibility of
physical danger and emotional damage to Elian.

Lawyers Jose Garcia-Pedrosa and Linda Osberg-Braun repeated that the Miami relatives want an independent psychological
evaluation of Elian--who they say does not want to go back to Cuba--and a private meeting with the father before they agree
to surrender the boy. But while the father has agreed to meet with the relatives, he has insisted--with federal government
backing--that he will not meet with them until Elian is back in his custody.

Sen. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.), who wants Elian to stay in this country and last week brokered a deal for such a meeting
with Lazaro Gonzalez's attorney, said that "when it came time to implement it, he was not in accord."

"I don't personally believe that Lazaro Gonzalez is capable at this point of reaching an accommodation," Torricelli said. "I think
that the pressure under which he is operating, and the direction that sometimes is coming from the people surrounding his home,
has made it impossible for him to really reach any accord."

Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his wife and their infant son received a standing ovation yesterday morning when they entered Shiloh
Baptist Church, one of the most prominent African American congregations in the city, as the church's senior choir sang "Guide
My Feet, Lord."

The Rev. Wallace Charles Smith said he had received a call last week from the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the former
president of the National Council of Churches supporter of Gonzalez's efforts, who asked if it would be all right for the family to
worship at his church on Palm Sunday.

Although Gonzalez has described himself as a non-believer, he has said that he and Elian were baptized in the tradition of many
Cubans who have kept up Catholic customs.

"I welcomed him to our church; I told him I had been to Cuba, I had preached in Havana," Smith said in a later interview. "I
told him how the Cuban people, against great odds, have shown tremendous courage, particularly in the face of the [U.S.]
economic blockade."

Pressley reported from Miami. Staff writers Hamil R. Harris and Helen Dewar in Washington contributed to this report.

                                 © 2000 The Washington Post Company