Pope meets Fidel Castro, draws huge crowd for Mass

Luke Skywalker · Sep 20, 2015

{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:

Get the news
Log In or Subscribe to skip

167 1 [h=6]Share This Story![/h]Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about

[h=4]Pope meets Fidel Castro, draws huge crowd for Mass[/h]Hundreds of thousands of Cubans swept into an electric*Revolution Plaza on Sunday to see Pope Francis say Mass on the first leg of a trip that will also take him to Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia.

{# #}
[h=4]Sent![/h]A link has been sent to your friend's email address.

[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

[h=6]Join the Nation's Conversation[/h]To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs

[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]

Pope Francis praised improved relations between the US and Cuba as a model of reconciliation for the world as he arrived in Havana Saturday. He opens his first full day in Cuba on Sunday with a mass before hundreds of thousands of people. (Sept. 20) AP

Faithful wait the arrival of Pope Francis for Mass in Revolution Plaza in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2015. The signs in Spanish read: "The truth will set us free," left, and "Long live Christ the king."(Photo: Enric Marti, AP)

HAVANA – Pope Francis met with Fidel Castro on Sunday after leading a Mass that drew hundreds of thousands of Cubans to an electric*Revolution Plaza.
The Vatican said Francis met informally for 30 to 40 minutes with Castro, his wife and some of Castro's extended family. Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardo said Francis presented Castro with a book written by a Jesuit. Castro, the iconic former leader of the communist*nation,*gave Francis a book about Castro's thoughts on religion.
“It was a very informal conversation,” Lombardi said.
Earlier, Pope Francis thrilled the throngs in the plaza with a Mass and homily that*urged people to serve their brothers and sisters, especially the most vulnerable.
“The call to serve involves something special, to which we must be attentive,” Francis said in his native Spanish.*“Serving others chiefly means caring for the vulnerable.”
Many in the massive crowd had been singing and clapping for hours before the Mass even began. The enthusiasm was not lost on Francis.
“God’s holy and faithful people in Cuba is a people with a taste for parties, for friendship, for beautiful things,” he said. “It is a people which has its wounds, like every other people, yet knows how to stand up with open arms, to keep walking in hope, because it is a vocation of grandeur.”
The Argentine*pope also issued a plea for Colombia's government and rebels there to ensure peace talks now underway bring an end a guerrilla war that has dragged on for 50 years. "We do not have the right to allow ourselves yet another failure on this path of peace," Francis said.
Cuban President Raúl Castro and*Argentine President Cristina Fernandez were among the first to briefly greet the pope after Mass concluded.*The Mass was just the beginning of a busy day for the Francis, who was meeting with Cuban government and religious leaders. A night prayer service and a meeting with young people also were scheduled.
USA TODAY
Where is Pope Francis? A schedule of his U.S. visit

The lead up to the morning Mass became a large outdoor festival, as an orchestra played traditional Cuban music that blared from loudspeakers. Spectators danced and mingled with visitors from Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Mexico.
Francis smiled and waved to huge, adoring crowds as he rolled through the city streets in a partially*glass-enclosed "popemobile."*He exited the vehicle from time to time to warmly shake hands with some of the throngs lining the streets leading to the square. He placed a hand on one elderly woman and blessed her.
The woman was 101-year-old Ofelia Lamadrid, from Havana, who had attended each of the previous papal visits to Cuba. This was the first time one had approached her, said Cesar Gonzalez, 43, her nephew, who accompanied her to the event.
“It’s wonderful,” he said. “That was her lifelong dream.”
Alejandro Navarro, 26, a computer engineer from Havana, showed up at the square at 6 a.m. Some of his friends had been there for hours.
“It’s something all Cubans, religious or not, should attend,” he said. “(Pope Francis) brought a revolutionary change to the church, and a way of thinking toward the less fortunate.”
He added: “Pope Francis has been an example for all of us. The Cuban people have been motivated by him, whether they’re religious or not.”
USA TODAY
Pope Francis arrives in Cuba for historic 10-day trip that includes U.S.

USA TODAY
Handcrafted altars, chairs await Pope Francis on U.S. visit

It’s the 78-year-old pontiff’s first visit to Cuba but the third papal trip to the island in just two decades.*Pope John Paul II’s groundbreaking visit to Cuba in 1998 was followed by a 2012 visit by Pope Benedict XVI.
This trip is significant on many levels: It’s the first papal trip to Cuba by a Latin American pope who is able to deliver homilies in his native Spanish. And this visit comes in the wake of re-established ties between the USA and Cuba, which Francis personally helped broker. The pope sent personal letters to Presidents Obama and Raúl Castro,*urging them to end their longtime Cold War enmity*and offering the Vatican as a neutral meeting place.
In recent years, the Vatican has been less a proponent of radical change in authoritarian governments —*such as John Paul II had inspired in communist Poland in the 1970s and ‘80s —*and more of a facilitator of gradual change, according to analysts. In Cuba, the Catholic leadership, led by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the archbishop of Havana, has been criticized for being too aligned with the Castro government and appeasing of its human rights violations.
But the Cuban Catholic Church has taken on a role of gradual reconciliation between the state and its opposition and emerged as the only independent, non-government institution on the communist island, said Ted Henken, Baruch College Latino Studies professor and longtime Cuba scholar.
“The church has pivoted away from being a dissident organization, as in the '60s and '70s, and now become more of a facilitator of reconciliation,” he said. “If they can accuse it of anything, it’s being pragmatic
Francis arrived here Saturday to streets lined with thousands of cheering, flag-waving Cubans.*Raúl*Castro and high-ranking members of Cuba’s Catholic Church greeted the pontiff at Jose Marti International Airport.*In a brief speech, Francis evoked the image of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba, and applauded the warming diplomatic ties*between the USA and Cuba.
Castro thanked the pontiff for his role in bringing the USA and Cuba closer diplomatically and reiterated his long-standing call for the end of the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

Francis is scheduled to arrive*Tuesday in the United States. He will meet with Obama on Wednesday and hold a canonization mass in Spanish, the first ever on U.S. soil, for Junipero Serra, the Spanish Franciscan friar who founded a mission in the 18th century in what today is California.

The pontiff will address Congress on Thursday and later head to New York.
Contributing: John Bacon in McLean, Va.
0) { %> 0) { %>
0) { %>

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed

Pope meets Fidel Castro, draws huge crowd for Mass

Luke Skywalker

Super Moderator