BY MEG LAUGHLIN

 God is on our side. That was the message Wednesday night at the huge prayer vigil
 in Little Havana, where the increasing religious mythology and fervor surrounding Elian
 Gonzalez reached a new high, as local Catholic priests and an auxiliary bishop likened
 the 6-year-old child to Jesus.

 ``In Cuba, some people have made Elian a symbol of the new Che [Guevara],
 so it is not so unusual that some people in Miami are seeing him as the new Christ,''
 said the Rev. Gustavo Miyares of Immaculate Conception Church in Hialeah, who
 was one of the organizers of the prayer vigil.

 The tendency to turn the political controversy surrounding the child into religious
 symbolism began four months ago when the boy was plucked from the sea by
 fishermen. An unconfirmed tale said dolphins circled around him, keeping him safe.
 This miraculous story paved the way for religious comparisons: Some compared
 the child's rescue to the tale of the drowning fishermen saved by la Caridad del
 Cobre (the Virgin of Charity), the patron saint of Cuba. Others likened the
 first-grader to Moses, believing he was put upon the roiling waters by his
 mother and rescued so that he could eventually return to Cuba and lead his
 people, just as Moses did.

 Still others compared Elian to baby Jesus himself, saying that his arrival just weeks
 before Christmas and the year 2000 made him a symbol of hope, like Jesus.

 The religious fervor surrounding the child was further buoyed by talk on the street
 that Fidel Castro must have the child to meet some conditions of his Santeria
 beliefs. This rumor surfaced after Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, host to the boy and
 his grandmothers in late January, was given a note by Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's
 great-uncle, who asked her to pass it on to the grandmothers. O'Laughlin, who
 forgot to pass the note on, found it in her pocket after Lazaro, Elian and the
 grandmothers had left her house.

 ``I was shocked by what it said,'' O'Laughlin said. ``The great-uncle believed
 Castro would make a witchcraft sacrifice of Elian and I became very worried about
 this.''

 O'Laughlin said her reversal of her neutral stance was partially provoked by the
 note, and she told the attorneys for the Miami family about it. Meanwhile, rumors
 spread on the street that the child would become Castro's Santeria sacrifice.

 According to the most-repeated rumor, a Santeria priestess had warned Castro
 that he would be overthrown by a child saved by dolphins at sea. Castro,
 therefore, had to get the child back in order to defuse the boy's potential power.

 A poster reflecting the fear of Santeria designs on the boy recently appeared in
 Little Havana. It is a photo of Elian accompanied by these words in Spanish:
 ``Elian knows Christ; the others don't.''

 ``The others are people in Cuba who believe in Santeria,'' said Alberto Davila, a
 neighbor of Elian's Miami relatives who has the poster taped to his front door.

 ``The Santeria rumors are ridiculous. The child was baptized as a Catholic in
 Cuba before he ever got here. He will not go back and become something
 different,'' said Joan Brown Campbell of the National Council of Churches, who
 accompanied Elian's grandmothers when they visited him.

 But the belief that the savior-child can only be saved from the underworld if he
 stays in Miami continues to rage on the streets.

 Last week, an oily smudge appeared on a bank window near the Little Havana
 home where the child lives with his Miami relatives. People gathered around it,
 some weeping and calling it an apparition of the Virgin Mary, who was showing
 herself, they believed, in support of the cause to keep Elian in Miami. Then, a few
 days later, the apparition moved closer to home when a spot appeared on a mirror
 in the bedroom where the child sleeps, its shape resembling the Virgin of
 Guadalupe, who is said to have shown herself to a Mexican peasant more than
 400 years ago.

 Outside the house, believers waved signs in Spanish to promote the idea that the
 Elian saga is religious at its core. One said: ``Do not deliver Elian to the
 Romans.'' Another said: ``Elian is Christ. Reno is Lucifer. Castro is Satan.''

 Miyares: ``These religious connections to Elian are a way for people to channel
 their grief and anger over 41 years of revolution. This child is a way for them to
 envision resurrection for Cuba.''

 But the Roman Catholic Church is not buying it -- at least not officially. Nor is it
 pointing to abundant Catholic teaching that says the relationship of a parent to a
 child takes precedence over issues of state or religion, suggesting that the child
 should be returned to his father in Cuba, rather than stay here. Instead, the
 Catholic Archdiocese has taken a no-comment position, saying only that people
 should pray for Elian and everyone involved with his future.

 And Wednesday night they did.

 Thousands formed a human cross in Little Havana, listening as priests read from
 the Bible and prayed. After reading from Scriptures about Herod wanting Jesus
 killed, Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman compared Elian to Jesus.

 Jesus was saved by his mother and foster father who took him away from Herod's
 murderous grasp, just as Elian was saved by his mother and stepfather who took
 him away from Castro to make him safe, Roman said.

 ``Open the door and protect him from the people who want him for bad things,''
 Roman prayed.

 When the bishop finished, Donato Dalrymple, one of the fisherman who rescued
 Elian, began a prayer: ``Keep Elian in Miami where he belongs.''

 Then he lifted his head and began to shout: ``Freedom for Elian. Freedom for
 Cuba.''

 And once again, as thousands joined in, the line blurred between what is political
 and what is religious in the Elian Gonzalez saga in Miami.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald