Pope Francis began his visit to Cuba praying for greater freedom for the island's people and calling on US and Cuban politicians to continue moving toward fully normal and neighbourly relations.
Meeting President Raul Castro and speaking before a small crowd at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport last night (19 September), Pope Francis said the Cuban-U.S. rapprochement announced in December is "an event which fills us with hope" after decades of tensions and a 55-year-old economic embargo against Cuba.
The new US-Cuban relationship, which leaders of both countries said the pope had a role in facilitating, are "a sign of the victory of the culture of encounter and dialogue," Pope Francis said.
"I urge political leaders to persevere on this path and to develop all its potentialities as a proof of the high service which they are called to carry out on behalf of the peace and well-being of their peoples, of all America, and as an example of reconciliation for the entire world," the pope said.
Briefly straying from his prepared text, Pope Francis said: "Our world needs this reconciliation at this time of the 'third world war,' which is being fought in stages", with multiple small conflicts going on simultaneously.
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The Cuban church described Pope Francis as a "missionary of mercy" to Cuba, where he was scheduled to stay until flying to the United States Sept. 22. In addition to Havana, the pope also was to visit Holguin and Santiago de Cuba with its nearby shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre.
Our Lady of Charity, he said, "has accompanied the history of the Cuba people, sustaining the hope which preserves people's dignity in the most difficult situations and championing the promotion of all that gives dignity to the human person."
The Pope said he would be visiting the shrine "as a son and a pilgrim to pray to our Mother for all her Cuban children and for this beloved nation, that it may travel the paths of justice, peace, liberty and reconciliation."
Shortly after his Alitalia plane took off from Rome's Fiumicino airport for the 11-hour flight to Havana, Pope Francis walked to the back of the plane to greet the 76 members of the media traveling with him to both Cuba and the United States.
Peace was on his mind as he set off from Rome, he said.
Just before leaving the Vatican, he said, he met the Syrian family of refugees being hosted by the Vatican's St. Anne's parish.
"Today the world is thirsting for peace," the pope told reporters. "There are wars, there are migrants who are fleeing, this wave of migration that comes from wars, fleeing death and seeking life."
"I was moved and became very emotional" meeting the family, he said. "You could see the pain in their faces."
PICTURE ABOVE: Pope Francis and Cuba's President Raul Castro wave to a crowd outside the Palace of the Revolution in Havana
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