“We need that kind of awareness that what we do in the halls of Congress affects the people right outside the doors”, said Neal Walsh who serves as Sacred Heart’s social ministry director. “And we’ll get you the necessary information”, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists on Saturday.
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“This is a crucial moment, and the Pope’s support for us is very important”, she said. He encouraged them to dream big about what their life could be like, and not be “boxed in” by ideologies or preconceptions about other people.
But he made no overt condemnation of the U.S. economic embargo, which persists despite the détente between the Cold War enemies.
But Castro’s government will also be sensitive to any criticism of its one-party political system or repression of dissidents.
Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said most of the 30-40 opposition activists rounded up were in Santa Clara and Havana.
But while the pope met with the Castro brothers, he has reportedly not met with Cuban dissidents, who were prevented from reaching the cathedral where a meeting was scheduled.
Asked if the Holy See would lodge an official protest, Lombardi demurred, the AP said.
After Mass, Francis went to the home of ailing Fidel Castro, 89, for a “30- to 40-minute” visit that the Vatican described as “fraternal” and “informal”.
The morning Mass kicked off a busy series of events for Francis, including a formal meeting with President Raul Castro and a likely encounter with his 89-year-old brother, Fidel.
Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron will meet with the pope in Washington, D.C. and he says he thinks the pope would laugh at the notion of being called “cool” at 79.
The Pope was driven through the crowds in his white vehicle, pausing to kiss children who were held up to him. “This makes you want to live, and build up this country”.
Andy Peraza Gonzalez, a Catholic who came out to hear the Pope, praised Francis for his political involvement. During his confession, he later wrote, he “realized God was waiting for me” and chose to enter the priesthood. Bergoglio wouldn’t enter the seminary for several more years, but September 21 – the feast of St. Matthew – has remained a crucial reference point for the pope.
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Fidel Castro gave the Pope a book entitled “Fidel and Religion”, based on conversations between the Cuban leader and a Brazilian priest, in which he speaks about his views on Catholicism and his education in a Jesuit school. He will be participating in events in Washington D.C. and New York before heading to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families and then returning to Rome.
