HAVANA (Reuters) – Pope Francis told former Cold War foes Cuba and the United States yesterday to set an example for the world by deepening the recent rapprochement that he helped broker.
His zucchetto skullcap flying off in the Caribbean breeze at the start of a nine-day tour of Cuba and the United States, the Argentine pope used his arrival speech at Havana airport to praise this year’s normalization of diplomatic relations.
“I urge political leaders to persevere on this path and to develop all its potentialities … on behalf of the peace and well-being of their peoples, of all America, and as an example of reconciliation for the entire world,” he said before riding in his open-sided popemobile through streets thronged with well-wishers.
Better sensitized to the issue than predecessors because of his Latin American roots, the 78-year-old pontiff facilitated a back channel for talks and sent missives to Presidents Raul Castro and Barack Obama at a delicate stage in the secret negotiations in 2014.
That bore fruit with a prisoner swap, the opening of embassies, and an easing of some travel and trade restrictions, although a half-century-old economic embargo is still in place, only removable by the US Congress.
Francis is a popular figure in Cuba and thousands of people lined the streets of Havana as he was driven in, cheering, waving Cuban and Vatican flags, and holding banners with the slogan: “Missionary of mercy, welcome to Cuba!”
As on previous papal visits, Cuban authorities rounded up some political opponents to prevent them from attending events around the visit, a dissident human rights group said.
Raul Castro – who like his brother and former revolutionary leader Fidel Castro was baptized a Catholic and educated by Jesuits – met the pope after his 12-hour flight from Italy. It was the third papal visit to Cuba in less than two decades.
Raul Castro thanked the pontiff for his help with the US rapprochement, but also used his welcoming speech to criticize Washington’s embargo and its occupation of the Guantanamo naval base on the eastern tip of the Caribbean island.
Cuba, he said, had been a model of internationalism and humanism in past decades. “We have done that while being blockaded, insulted, attacked, with a high cost in human lives and major economic damage.”
Since reaching a historic breakthrough with Castro in December, Obama has come out against the embargo. On Friday, he issued new regulations weakening the embargo for a second time, using his executive authority to circumvent Congress.
Despite making Cuba constitutionally atheist and repressing Catholics in the early years after their 1959 revolution, the Castro brothers have relaxed that stance since the 1990s.
Raul Castro even told Francis, a Jesuit, earlier this year he may start praying again and return to the Church.
In his speech, Francis sent greetings to Fidel Castro, whom he is expected to meet. He also urged further backing for Cuban Catholics “so that the Church can continue to support and encourage the Cuban people in its hopes and concerns, with the freedom, the means and the space needed.”
He is to celebrate Mass in Havana today in Revolution Square, where a huge picture of Jesus Christ has been temporarily hung alongside permanent images of revolutionary heroes Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.
The pope will also visit the cities of Holguin and Santiago before flying on Tuesday to the United States, where he will meet Obama and address the US Congress and United Nations.
While in Cuba, he is expected to call for the United States to end its trade embargo.
But once in the United States, the pope may tread more lightly, aides said, to avoid the appearance of meddling in the web of legislation, vested interests, and decades-old resentments that are slowing the pace of change.
Cuba’s ruling Communist Party will welcome any papal criticism of the embargo and may have to bear a corresponding call for greater political tolerance from the government, which still runs a one-party state and jails and harasses dissidents.
