Vatican official to visit Cuba amid calls for change

HAVANA (Reuters) – Vatican Foreign Minister Dominque Mamberti will visit Cuba this week at a time when the Catholic church is flexing its political muscle and calling for change on the communist-led island.

His five-day visit, which starts today, follows the release of one of Cuba’s estimated 190 political prisoners and the transfer of 12 others to jails closer to their homes in moves requested by church leaders. The concessions by the Cuban government have raised hopes that more prisoners will be freed in a gesture to Mamberti, who is the third Vatican official to come to Cuba since Raul Castro succeeded older brother Fidel Castro as president in 2008.

Mamberti is scheduled to meet Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, as well as take part in a church conference where Cuban intellectuals, including several exiles from the United States, will discuss key issues on the island.

His official reason for coming to Cuba is to mark the 75th anniversary of the start of Vatican-Cuba diplomatic relations. Relations between the Catholic Church and Cuba’s communist government were highly contentious in the years following the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power, but have improved since the 1998 visit of Pope John Paul II.

The pope urged Cuba to release its political prisoners, and after he left more than 200 were freed.

The church has moved cautiously over the years, but in recent months Cuban church leader Cardinal Jaime Ortega has become more outspoken.

In a unusually blunt interview with church publication Palabra Nueva (New Word) in April, Ortega said Cubans were fed up with the country’s ongoing economic difficulties and called for the government to “make the necessary changes quickly.”