Francis, who arrived in Havana Saturday and heads to Washington Tuesday, helped facilitate that moment in secret negotiations.
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After serving mass in Havana’s Revolution Square, the first Pope from Latin America went to visit Fidel Castro at the former President’s home.
Francis, who has not shied away from thorny political issues, weighed in on the Colombia peace talks going on in Havana over the last two years.
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.
Francis’ role in restoring diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba could be one reason the Pope is avoiding the kind of criticism that his predecessors, St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, made during visits to Cuba. Ortega was among many priests sent to military-run agricultural camps in the 1960s after Fidel Castro declared Cuba to be socialist and accused prominent Catholics of trying to topple him.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that some dissidents were invited to events to receive a greeting from the pope but that he didn’t know why the greeting didn’t take place.
He appeared to be in discomfort during his visit to the shrine; the 78-year-old pope suffers from a condition called sciatica that causes intense pain in the lower back and down the leg.
Francis gave Castro several of his official papal writings, two books on spirituality and a book and CD on the writings of Father Armando Llorente, a priest who taught Castro in Jesuit prep school more than 70 years ago.
SANTIAGO, Cuba (AP) – Security was tight Monday for Pope Francis after a dissident got close enough to touch the popemobile a day earlier and at least three other opposition members were thwarted trying to accept Vatican invitations to greet the pontiff at ceremonies in Havana. “Holguin is with you!” from the tarmac as the pope emerged from an Alitalia plane.
Pope Francis will celebrate Mass in Cuba’s eastern cities of Holguin and Santiago before he flies out today to the U.S. , where he will meet President Barack Obama and address both the US Congress and the United Nations. While Cuba’s government basks in the glow of Francis’ four-day visit, it is not clear whether Francis will use the stage on Sunday to criticize the Communist leaders on democracy and human rights.
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Pope Francis delivered mass Sunday before hundreds of thousands of fans and faithful on Havana’s iconic Revolution Square, calling Cubans to serve the most downtrodden and warning them that “service is never ideological”. Francis thanked the 84-year-old leader for his pardon of thousands of petty criminals before his arrival.
