Pope Francis began the second full day of his visit to Cuba by celebrating mass in the eastern city of Holguin before flying to Santiago to meet with bishops at the seminary of St. Basil the Great in El Cobre.
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In return, Castro gave Francis an interview book titled “Fidel and Religion”, written in 1985 by Freitas Betto.
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.
“There is a kind of service which truly serves”, the pope preached during his homily, “yet we need to be careful not to be tempted by another kind of service, a service which is self-serving”.
Francis urged presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro to persevere in building normal ties as he launched a 10-day tour of the former Cold War foes.
“I know the efforts and the sacrifices being made by the Church in Cuba to bring Christ’s word and presence to all, even in the most remote areas”, Francis told a packed square earlier in Holguin, where believers braved the tropical heat to attend an open-air mass.
Rodriguez says “Cubans are very nice people, but we’ve lost a lot of our values”.
Francis is the third pope to visit Cuba, after St. John Paul II in 1998 and Benedict XVI in 2012.
Several leading dissidents have criticized the pope for not accepting their requests to meet him during his visit.
Three were dragged away from Revolution Square on Sunday before the pope celebrated Mass for tens of thousands.
An estimated 50 government opponents have been detained and prevented from attending papal events since Francis arrived on Saturday, according to the dissident Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
Security agents wrestled two men and a woman to the ground at the edge of Revolution Square, then led them off, after they started shouting and tried to hand out flyers, a Reuters witness said. “We’re all hoping to receive his mercy”, said Maria Eugenia Paulina Prieto, 56, who sings in a choir that will perform during the ceremony.
One such Cuban, Ernesto Flores, told Crux that he read the pope’s message thinking of the changing relationship with the United States.
When Francis arrives in the United States on Tuesday afternoon, the president and first lady plan to greet him at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
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Pope Francis is wrapping up a trip to Cuba Monday and then he’ll head to the USA for his first visit.
