Pope Francis with Raul Castro on September 20, 2015 in Havana.
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“Believer or non-believer, we believe in the pope!” said Yami Mendez, a retired schoolteacher in Holguin who is not a Catholic but, like most Cubans, holds Francis in high esteem.
Castro’s wife, children and grandchildren were present at the meeting.
It was the second straight day that police prevented them from attending events with the pope.
Earlier, Francis blessed the Cuban people during Mass in Havana’s Revolution Square.
The government’s opponents may feel the pope was talking about Fidel and Raul Castro, the brothers who have been Cuba’s dominant figures since the 1959 revolution while their defenders could point to another passage as praise for a revolution that has provided Cubans with free health care and education.
“Service is never ideological”, he said, as President Raul Castro and senior members of his communist government looked on. He echoed that call again to young people gathered at a Catholic community center in the shadows of Old Havana’s cathedral.
Now made of concrete, the five-meter (16-foot) landmark has endured through centuries of hurricanes and years of tensions between the Church and the communist regime, which was officially atheist for more than three decades until 1992.
This is the first visit by the Argentinian-born Pope to Cuba since he became pontiff in 2013.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Cuban security forces kept political dissidents away, blocking them from attending some events and detaining several others.
The Pope must also remember that Americans – his next hosts after Cuba – are following his behaviour in Havana.
After celebrating mass, the pope mounted a hill overlooking Holguin to bless the city at the site of a cross erected there in 1790 by a Franciscan monk.
Francis is a popular figure among Catholics and non-Catholics alike on the island, in particular for his role in facilitating negotiations between the Castro government and the Obama administration, which led to the restoration of diplomatic relations in July.
“He invites us slowly to overcome our preconceptions and our reluctance to think that others, much less ourselves, can change”, Francis said.
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While in D.C. the Archbishop says the pope will address some important themes. On Tuesday, he will fly to the USA and finish his historic 10-day tour of the two countries. Later, he was to head to Santiago on Cuba’s eastern end before flying to Washington on Tuesday for the USA leg of his two-nation trip to the former Cold War foes.
