(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis travels to Havana, on Saturday at the start of his ten day visit to Cuba, the United States and the United Nations in New York. The first part of that pastoral journey will take him to the Cuban capital and then on to the cities of Holguin and Santiago de Cuba on the south-eastern tip of the island, where he’ll rededicate the Caribbean country to Our Lady of Charity of ‘El Cobre’. Pope Francis follows in the footsteps of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who visited Cuba in 2012 and of Pope John Paul II, who was the first pontiff to travel to the communist country in 1998. But Francis will be the first Latin American pope to visit the island, just two months after the announcement of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States – a historic development with which the Vatican was closely involved. Oblate Father Andrew Small is director the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, but back in the early 2000s he travelled regularly to Cuba as secretary of the U.S. Bishops’ office for Latin America. Ahead of the Pope’s departure, he talked to Philippa Hitchen about the importance of U.S.-Cuban relations and about the welcome Pope Francis will receive from the Cuban people… Listen:
Fr Andrew say the Cuban Church has always been strongly supported by the Church in the United States and that the U.S. bishops have constantly worked for the lifting of the economic embargo that has had such serious repercussions on the lives of ordinary Cubans. Since the “shifting sands following the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and Cuba’s realignment, less with the Soviet bloc and more with certain forces in Latin America”, Fr Andrew says the economic isolation of the country has continued. But he traces the “reforms and opening up to ownership of small businesses” that have taken place since the previous papal visits….. Fr Andrew notes that the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba has always been very tense and “complicated by forces on the ground” such as the “old guard” in Havana and the exile community in Miami and the Eastern United States. Following the handover of power from Fidel Castro to his brother Raul, Fr Andrew says the new Cuban leader found it “difficult to free himself from the more hardline forces” that were keeping the “memory and principles of the revolution” alive. But the Cuban Church, he continues, has always been “a key partner in helping some of those openings happen without losing face or seeming as if the revolution was crumbling”…. Fr Andrew says that Pope Francis has many advantages as the first Latin American Pope in that he understands the political context of the region and knows many of the players personally. He is “able to come into that and try to seek some new beginning – which is what the party seemed to want but never knew how to get there”, he says. (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a videomessage to the people of Cuba on the eve of his Apostolic visit to the country. In the message to the people of Cuba which was broadcast on Thursday evening, Pope Francis said he was visiting their country to share their faith and their hope. He expressed the joy he felt when thinking about their fidelity to the Lord, and the strength it gave him thinking about the courage with which they face the difficulties of everyday and the love with which they help and support each other along the path of life.
Listen
In his broadcast the Pope said his message was a very simple one, but he added, an important and necessary one. It is, Pope Francis said, that Jesus loves you so much, Jesus loves you completely.
The Holy Father continued saying that the Lord loves you from the heart.
“He knows better than anyone else what everyone needs, what are your longings, what is your deepest desire. He never abandons us, and even when we don’t act as he expects us to, he said, Jesus is always at our side, ready to welcome us, to comfort us, to give us a new hope, a new opportunity, a new life.
Thanking the Cuban people for their prayers in advance of his visit, Pope Francis said he wanted to be with them as a missionary of mercy, adding “let me also encourage you to be missionaries of the infinite love of God.
Noting that he would be visiting the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Cobre as a pilgrim, the Holy Father entrusted this Apostolic journey to her.
Pope Francis will visit Cuba from the 19-22 of September.
(from Vatican Radio)…