Windy conditions in the Cuban capital resulted in the Pope’s zucchetto skull-cap blowing away as he stepped of his plane.
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But the Vatican made clear no such meeting would take place, given Francis wanted his visit to focus on Cuba.
In his homily, Francis urged Cubans to care for one another out of a sense of service, not ideology, and to refrain from judging one another by “looking to one side or the other to see what our neighbour is doing or not doing”.
An AFP photographer said the activists – two men and a woman – yelled anti-government slogans and resisted arrest as plainclothes agents detained them when they tried to get near the white popemobile.
He said he distrusts Cuba and the communist government.
“Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people“.
Following the service, Francis is scheduled to hold a private meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro, and may pay a visit to Castro’s ailing brother and predecessor, 89-year-old Fidel Castro.
“Who is the most important?” “You could see the pain of all of this in their faces”, he said.
Raul Castro, an atheist like his brother, surprised the pope by giving him a sculpture of a life-sized crucified Jesus Christ against a backdrop of fishing nets and oars.
Pope Francis urged Colombia’s government and Marxist FARC guerrillas on Sunday to ensure almost three years of peace talks in Cuba are successful and end their “long night” of war.
“His visit is cause for hope in our aspirations for improvement”, said biologist Benito Espinoza, 41, at Revolution Square. “The process of normalizing relations between two peoples after many years of estrangement”.
Francis directed the message to thousands of Cubans gathered Sunday for his first Mass in Havana’s Revolution Plaza.
“It’s a historic moment for her and for us”.
The most notable recent release occurred in January 2015, when Havana pardoned 53 political prisoners as part of the breakthrough December 17 US-Cuba agreement and included many known to worldwide human rights groups as “prisoners of conscience”, Reuters reported.
As with any massive event, Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba is mostly religious despite the political undertones and role of the Vatican in bringing renewed diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba.
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He will fly to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and head to New York Thursday evening for a two-day visit that will culminate with a Mass at Madison Square Garden.
