Pope trip ties Cuba to US
Pope Francis was wrapping up his Cuba visit before heading to the United States.
|||El Cobre - Pope Francis was wrapping up his Cuba visit on Tuesday before heading to the United States, figuratively connecting the longtime Cold War foes who are undergoing a detente with the help of his mediation.
The popular Argentine pope celebrated Mass at the sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, Cuba's holiest shrine in the shadow of the Sierra Maestra mountains where Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro led their 1959 revolution.
In keeping with his avoidance of overtly political messages in Cuba, Francis, 78, used his third and last Mass on the island to call for a “revolution of tenderness” and renewal of faith.
He also praised past generations for keeping the Catholic flame alive. “The soul of the Cuban people ... was forged amid suffering and privation which could not suppress the faith,” he said. “Grandmothers, mothers, and so many others ... kept open a tiny space, small as a mustard seed.”
“Like Mary, Mother of Charity, we want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation,” Francis added in his homily at the small former copper-mining town El Cobre.
His words resonated for Cubans who lived through the atheist Castro brothers' repression of Catholicism after their revolution. They relaxed that stance from the 1990s and Francis has been the third pontiff to visit the Communist-run Caribbean island in less than 20 years.
“We Cubans feel flattered that three popes have visited us,” said a nun, Francisca Bermudez. “A pope's visit is always a blessing.”
The Virgin of Charity, a small image of the Madonna and Child said to have been rescued from the sea miraculously dry four centuries ago, is venerated by all Cubans, including practitioners of Afro-Cuban religions.
At El Cobre on Monday night, Francis prayed for reconciliation among all Cubans, both at home and abroad.
An estimated 2 million Cubans have left the island since the 1959 revolution with some 1.3 million currently living abroad, most of them in the United States, where many exiles remain bitterly estranged from their homeland.
There is great anticipation for what Francis will say in the United States, where he will meet with US President Barack Obama, deliver the first address by a pope before Congress, and speak at the United Nations.
Francis played a crucial role in facilitating a back channel between Cuba and the United States, including sending missives to presidents Obama and Castro in 2014, that helped bring about this year's restoration of diplomatic ties.
In Cuba, the government had hoped he would condemn the still-intact US economic embargo, which Obama is urging the Republican-controlled Congress to end. Critics of Cuba's one-party system, which jails and harasses dissidents, had hoped Francis would call for greater political tolerance.
But instead, he used his homilies to send subtler messages, laced in spirituality, about the need for change. He urged Cubans to think out of the box and be tolerant of other ideas.
The gentler approach, a contrast to his two immediate predecessors when they visited, seems driven by a desire to quietly encourage Cubans at a delicate time following the resumption of diplomatic ties with the United States.
Meanwhile the Cuban Church is discreetly negotiating greater space for its mission.
“He has spoken with clarity, discretion and restraint,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters.
“The pope wants to make a contribution but the responsibility lies with the leaders of nations. He does not want to exaggerate his role, he just wants to contribute by making suggestions, promoting dialogue, justice and the common good of people,” he said.
Dissidents say about 50-60 of their members were arrested during Francis' visit, with a similar number blocked from leaving their homes, to prevent them attending papal events.
One dissident, however, broke through the security cordon to say a few words to the pope during his first Mass in Havana's Revolution Square, before being dragged away by security agents.
Reuters