CUBA: Pope Benedict receives warm welcome from President Raul Castro when he arrives in Santiago de Cuba, says he is convinced that Cuba is "striving to renew and broaden its horizons"

Record ID: 231895

  • Title: CUBA: Pope Benedict receives warm welcome from President Raul Castro when he arrives in Santiago de Cuba, says he is convinced that Cuba is "striving to renew and broaden its horizons"
  • Date: 27th March 2012
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF POPE BENEDICT EMERGING FROM PLANE AND WALKING DOWN STEPS CASTRO GREETING POPE BENEDICT
  • Embargoed: 11th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba, Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVARVVOPZXPEAPZOL3ATUQM3YWX
  • Story Text: Pope Benedict arrived in Cuba on Monday (March 26) for a three-day visit to showcase improving Church-state relations and push for a larger Church role at a time of change on the island.
    The pope was greeted warmly in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba at the steps of his plane by Cuban President Raul Castro, dressed in a dark suit, accompanied by a full Honor Guard and artillery gun salute.
    Visiting 14 years after Pope John Paul II's landmark trip to Cuba, Benedict will lead Masses in Santiago and in Havana before flying home on Wednesday.
    He comes to Cuba at a time when Church-state relations have warmed after decades of hostility that followed the island's 1959 revolution.
    In his welcoming remarks, Castro delivered a firm political lecture about the injustices of the United States' hostility toward Cuba, and the island's "tenacious resistance" to preserve its independence and "follow its own path."
    "Political corruption and the lack of true democracy are evils of our time. In these and other issues, we value concurrence with your ideas. Facing these challenges, our America secure in its sovereignty, is trying to integrate for more solidarity to make real the bicentenary dream of our predecessors. Your Holiness can lead the people of deep conviction, who will listen to you attentively and respectfully. In the name of the nation, I give you the warmest welcome," he said.
    In a brief arrival speech before heading off in the popemobile for a Mass in Santiago's Revolution Square, Benedict recalled the previous papal visit, saying it left "an indelible mark on the soul of all Cubans," whether believers or not.
    John Paul's visit "was like a gentle breath of fresh air which gave new strength to the Church in Cuba," the 84-year-old pope said.
    "One of the important fruits of that visit was the inauguration of a new phase in the relationship in Cuba between Church and State in a nw spirit of cooperation and trust, even if many areas remain in which greater progress can and ought to be made, especially as regards the indispensable public contribution that religion is called to make in the life of society," he said.
    Pope Benedict also made a rare and thinly veiled reference to Cuba's political prisoners, one of the country's most controversial topics.
    "I carry in my heart the just aspirations and legitimate desires of all Cubans, wherever they may be, their sufferings and their joys, their concerns and their noblest desires, those of the young and the elderly, of adolescents and children, of the sick and workers, of prisoners and their families, and of the poor and those in need," he said.
    He added that change was in the Cuba's future.
    "Dear friends, I am convinced that Cuba, at this moment of particular importance in its history, is already looking to the future and thus is striving to renew and broaden its horizons. Of great help in this enterprise will be the fine patrimony of spiritual and moral values which fashioned the nation's true identity and which stand out in the work and the life of many distinguished fathers of the country," he said.
    Pope Benedict fired an unexpected salvo on Friday when he said communism in Cuba had failed and a new economic model was needed, adding that the Church was willing to offer its help "to avoid traumas."
    Pope Benedict and Castro are due to meet for talks in the capital Havana on Tuesday (March 27), after the pope visits the figurine of the Virgin of Charity, Cuba's patron, at a basilica in El Cobre near Santiago.
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