Pope Francis will spend four days in Cuba en route to the US, the Cuban bishops announced on Monday.
He will visit the communist island from 19 to 22 September, before travelling on to Washington DC for a six-day visit which will include him giving a speech to Congress, addressing the UN in New York and attending the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.
The bishops’ announcement came one day after the Cuban President Raul Castro spent almost an hour in private talks with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
During Sunday’s meeting Mr Castro thanked the Pope for his mediation role in the recent thawing of relations between Cuba and the United States, and the two discussed details of Francis’ forthcoming visit.
After the meeting Mr Castro said he was so impressed by Pope Francis that he could be persuaded to return to the Catholic Church he and his brother had suppressed for 50 years.
The former revolutionary was on his way back from VE celebrations in Moscow.
Speaking at a news conference later with the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Mr Castro praised Francis for " his knowledge, his wisdom, modesty, and by all the virtues that we know he has”. He revealed that he admires the Pope as a champion of the poor, and that he reads all of his speeches.
He said: “If the Pope continues to talk as he does, sooner or later I will start praying again and return to the Catholic Church – I am not kidding.”
“When the Pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his Masses, and with satisfaction,” he said.
Speaking at a news conference later with the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Mr Castro praised Francis for " his knowledge, his wisdom, modesty, and by all the virtues that we know he has”. He revealed that he admires the Pope as a champion of the poor, and that he reads all of his speeches.
He said: “If the Pope continues to talk as he does, sooner or later I will start praying again and return to the Catholic Church – I am not kidding.”
“When the Pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his Masses, and with satisfaction,” he said.
The president also joked that he had been brought up by the same order as Francis – he was educated by Jesuits before the revolution led by his brother Fidel.
After Fidel’s troops seized power in 1959, Catholics and adherents to other religions were targeted, Catholic schools were nationalised, church property was seized and priests and ministers were forced into exile or imprisoned. Christmas was only reinstated as a national holiday in 1998 following a visit from St John Paul II.
Religious activity is still restricted but Mr Castro on Sunday acknowledged that conditions are improving. He said on Sunday. "The party never allowed the believers. Now we are allowing that believers also be part. This is an important step."
Among Mr Castro’s entourage was a Cuban artist, K’cho, who presented Francis with a painting depicting a migrant in prayer before a cross made of wrecked boats. Kcho told the Pope he had been inspired by Francis’ concern for migrants and his visit to Lampedusa, the Italian island whose shores have become a graveyard for flimsy boats carrying desperate migrants trying to reach Europe.
Francis gave Mr Castro a medal depicting St Martin of Tours, who cut his cloak in two to share with a beggar. "With his mantle he covers the poor," Pope Francis told the President, saying the medal recalls the duty to help and protect the poor and to promote dignity.
The Pope also gave Mr Castro a copy of his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii gaudium.
Photos: CNS/pool
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