Cuba critics detained ahead of meeting with Pope

Two longstanding critics of Cuba’s regime were invited to attend vespers yesterday afternoon with Pope Francis at the Cathedral in Havana but were understood to have been detained by the country’s security agents.

Marta Beatriz Roque and Miriam Leiva say they received invitations from the papal nuncio to Cuba, Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, to attend the service of evening prayer but were arrested as they travelled to the cathedral. Roque also said she had been invited to the nunciature, the residence of the papal ambassador, to meet Francis on Saturday but was also detained at that time.

During a press briefing on Sunday evening Fr Federico Lombardi, the director of the Holy See Press Office, told journalists that “telephone calls were made” to show the Pope’s concern for opponents of the communist regime and to arrange a “greeting”. However Fr Lombardi denied that a specific meeting had been planned. 

On Sunday, the Pope paid a visit to former president Fidel Castro after saying Mass in Revolution Square in front of tens of thousands. His meeting with Castro follows ones made by his predecessors Pope John Paul II, in 1998, and Benedict XVI, in 2012. 

Fr Lombardi described the meeting between Castro and Francis as “familiar and informal” with the pair exchanging presents. Francis presented several books including one by a Spanish Jesuit Fr Segundo Llorentea, and another by Fr Alessandro Pronzato, an Italian priest. He also presented Castro with a book and two CDs of his homilies as well as his two encyclical letters Lumen Fidei and Laudao si’. 

Castro gave the Pope a book titled Fidel and Religion written in 1985 by Brazilian priest Fr Frei Betto with a dedication inside that reads: "For Pope Francis, on occasion of his visit to Cuba, with the admiration and respect of the Cuban people.”

The Pope has been credited with playing a key interlocutor role in helping restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, and he is due to arrive in the latter country for a six day visit on Tuesday. 

But there has been criticism from dissidents of the regime that he would not press the Cuban government on human rights, civil liberties and freedom of religion. 

During his homily at Mass on Sunday, Francis called on Cubans to serve one another warning against ideology.  

He said: “Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.” 

Describing the Cuban people as having a “taste for parties, for friendship, for beautiful things” he said: “It is a people which has its wounds, like every other people, yet knows how to stand up with open arms, to keep walking in hope, because it has a vocation of grandeur.” 

Pope Francis greets crowds in Revolution Square

Cuba has almost seven million Catholics, which makes up 60 per cent of the population, although Mass attendance is on the decline. There are 283 parishes, 365 priests, 659 male and female religious and 85 seminarians. 

Later, in off-the-cuff remarks during vespers, Francis urged priests never to “hesitate to forgive” and when speaking to young people told them to follow their dreams and asked them to pray for him “and if you don't believe, at least wish me well.” 

Tomorrow morning the Pope is due to fly from Havana to Holguín where he will say Mass, meet with bishops and pray at the shrine of the Virgen de la Caridad (Our Lady of Charity) who is the patroness of Cuba. 

Meanwhile, in anticipation to the United States, he sent a message in English to those attending the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. The Pope is due to say the closing Mass for the event next Sunday.