BY D. AILEEN DODD

 For months, the good shepherds of South Florida's Roman Catholic Church stood vigil outside the temporary Little Havana home of Elian Gonzalez, offering prayer for the family while deliberately taking no public position on the custody battle.

 But recently, their veil of prayerful silence was broken by a letter to President Clinton.

 Fifty-four priests -- Hispanic and non-Hispanic -- signed the letter of protest, faxed from parish to parish. It was crafted without the approval or input of the leadership of the Archdiocese of Miami, a powerful voice some Catholics say has been sorely missing from the debate surrounding Elian.

 ``We have to fight for what we believe in, not wait for people to do something. The bishops are the leaders, but the church is more than the bishops,'' said the Rev. Jose L. Menendez, pastor of Corpus Christi Catholic Church of Hialeah. ``A group of us came together because we were horrified with what happened and felt in a way discriminated against that this would go on during the three most sacred days of our faith. Elian was like our own kid.''

 Though the United States arm of the Roman Catholic Church, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, helps to resettle about one-third of the 80,000 refugees admitted into the country every year, the church rarely intervenes in individual custody cases, even if those cases attract international attention.

 THE BIG PICTURE

 Instead, the church focuses mainly on the big picture, tackling national policy toward refugees, seeking humanitarian aid for Third World countries, and working to mediate the fall of communism in places seeking a democracy.

 The Archdiocese of Miami has neither praised nor criticized the priests' letter to the president. It has simply accepted the message as a clerical form of free speech.

 ``Every person can express what he thinks,'' said Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman, a leader in the Cuban exile community who helped to mediate an end to Mariel detainee riots at two Southern prisons in the 1980s. ``I think our role is to pray. We are present as a church and have been praying from the beginning.''

 The Elian case is not being totally ignored by the national church, but its leaders have chosen to keep a low profile on the issue, unlike the vocal backers of Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, among the National Council of Churches.

 ``We have not been approached by the family to be involved,'' said Mark Franken, executive director of Migration and Refugee Services for the Catholic Conference. ``There is so much we don't know. There are a lot of details and facts that need to be explored. In a situation like this, they are usually explored in a court of law.''

 The church's middle-of-the-road position shouldn't be viewed among lay members as a slighting by their hierarchy, said Christine Gudorf, professor of religion at Florida International University.

 `GOD ON OUR SIDE'

 ``Everybody always wants their religious leaders to support their position so they can say God is on our side,'' said Gudorf. But ``the Catholic Church is not going to take a position in one part of the world that discredits the faith to Catholics in other parts of the world.''

 Still, the silence of some of the church's South Florida immigrant advocates is ``interesting,'' said Rey Terry, assistant professor at FIU. ``Some of Miami's bishops historically have been very active in immigration advocacy, especially [Auxiliary] Bishop Thomas Wenski for Haitians and Bishop Roman for Cubans. They have enormous influence.''

 The case has prompted national church immigration officials to look more closely at the treatment of children who arrive at U.S. shores without documentation, a parent or a guardian.

 ``We hope that given this experience and the exposure this case has given to children without parents in a migration setting, that first and foremost [the government] should not place these children in detention facilities,'' Franken said. ``In pursuing the child's best interest, immediately there should be efforts taken to reunify the child with parents or guardians.''

 INTERNATIONAL WORK

 Internationally, leaders of church agencies like Catholic Relief Service's Cuban counterpart, Caritas Cuba, which helps Cuban Catholics provide assistance to Cubans by donating about $5 million in food and medical supplies to the island, are also monitoring the situation.

 ``We are talking about looking at the migration of Cubans and family dislocation like you saw in the case of Elian,'' said Tom Garafola, country representative for Cuba from his Washington, D.C., office.

 Behind the scenes, the Catholic Conference has been involved with the Elian case since the boy arrived. Officials worked through the Archdiocese of Miami's Catholic Charities agency to conduct home visits with the Gonzalezes and help them get the assistance they needed to act as Elian's guardian in case of medical emergencies.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald