Icon16Pope Francis to receive president of Cuba Raúl Castro May 06, 2015 Pope Francis to receive president of Cuba Raúl Ca

Pope Francis to receive president of Cuba Raúl Castro

May 06, 2015
Pope Francis to receive president of Cuba Raúl Castro
Icon16Pope Francis to receive president of Cuba Raúl Castro May 06, 2015 Pope Francis to receive president of Cuba Raúl Ca 06_E3_5

(©Lapresse) Raúl Castro
The private meeting will take place on the morning of Sunday 10 May. Fr. Lombardi has confirmed the news
iacopo scaramuzzi
vatican city

اقتباس :: It’s official. On the morning of Sunday 10 May, the Holy Father will be holding a strictly private meeting with the Republic of Cuba, Raúl Castro Ruz.
The meeting will take place in the papal study. The director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi has confirmed this.
Readers will recall that President Castro publicly thanked the Pope for the role he played in encouraging the rapprochement between the US and Cuba and Francis is to visit the island in September before moving on to the US.
Last 17 December – after Cuba’s President Raúl Castro and US President Barack Obama publicly recognized the Pope’s contribution to the turning point in bilateral relations in their respective televised addresses – the Vatican Secretariat of State issued a statement communicating that "the Holy Father wishes to express deep satisfaction for the historic decision of the Governments of the United States and Cuba to establish diplomatic relations, in order to overcome, in the interest of their citizens, the difficulties that have marked their recent history. In the course of recent months, the Holy Father wrote to the President of the Republic of Cuba, Mr Raúl Castro, and to the President of the United States, Mr. Barack H. Obama, inviting them to resolve humanitarian issues of common interest, including the situation of some detainees, in order to start a new phase in relations between the two parties." “The Holy See will continue to provide its support to the initiatives that the two countries will undertake to boost bilateral relations and promote the welfare of their citizens,” the statement concluded by saying.
President Raúl Castro met Pope Benedict XVI on 27 March 2012 during the latter’s visit to Cuba Ratzinger also met Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro. John Paul II was the first Pope to receive a Cuban leader – Fidel himself – in audience in 1996. In 1998 the Pope met the Cuban leader again when he visited Cuba.
The Vatican recently gave official confirmation that Pope Francis will be visiting Cuba as part of his upcoming trip to North America. Last 17 February the Holy See Press Office informed that Pope Francis “has taken into consideration the idea of making a stop in Cuba on the occasion of his upcoming Trip to the United States. However, plans are still in too early a phase for it to be possible to regard this stop as a firm decision and an operative plan,” Fr. Lombardi said. A few days later the stopover in Cuba before his pre-scheduled trip to the US was confirmed.

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