Next Saturday, Pope Francis embarks on his most delicate foreign trip. Overleaf, we anticipate what awaits him in the US; here we consider the special hope he is taking to Cuba Last month, at a journalists’ conference in Philadelphia to prepare for the papal visit, it became apparent that the US media regards Pope Francis’ trip to Cuba before his arrival in the US as little more than a stopover. But for Francis, the visit to Havana, Holguín and the shrine of Our Lady of Charity near Santiago has enormous significance. It offers the chance not just to encourage the Church on the island to help in Cuba’s transition to a plural economy and society, but also to convert and reconcile the Manichean polarities that have long poisoned the politics of Latin America, as we