Cuban President Raul Castro smiles with the Vatican secretary of state,
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, during a meeting at the Revolution Palace
in Havana, Feb. 26.
CNS PHOTO/JAVIER GALEANO/REUTERS
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By Catholic News Service
HAVANA (CNS) – Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican
secretary of state, told Cuba’s new president Paul Castro that the
Vatican maintains its commitment to “help bring the world closer
to Cuba and share common ground on international issues.”
The cardinal said he made the remarks during a meeting with Castro who
took office Feb. 24, replacing his brother, Fidel Castro, who announced
the previous week that he was stepping down for health reason. Raul Castro
had been acting as president since July 2006.
Relations between the Church and the government of Cuba “will always
be challenging, but also filled with opportunities to promote the well-being
of the Cuban people,” the cardinal said at the Havana airport late
Feb. 26, just before he left.
He and Castro spoke “about the Church, about Cuba and Cubans at
the present moment, with particular reference to the challenges posed
by the world of young people,” he said. He also said that with “greatest
respect for the sovereignty of the country and its citizens, I expressed
to President Raul Castro the Church’s concern for the prisoners
and their relatives.”
The Cuban news agency AIN reported that the cardinal and the president
“examined the Cuban government’s relations with the Holy See
and the Catholic Church in Cuba” and exchanged views “about
issues of multilateral and international interest.”
On Feb. 25, Cardinal Bertone told a press conference that his visit to
the island came at “a special, extraordinary moment” and that
“Raul Castro will continue . . . with a vision . . . of development,”
both in Cuba and in foreign relations.
The meeting with the new president came at the end of a packed schedule
that took the cardinal to various cities around the island, following
in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to the country
10 years ago.
At the airport, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque asked the cardinal
to convey to Pope Benedict XVI the Cuban government’s “feelings
of respect” and thank him for “the way he raised a voice in
support of Cuba’s independence and sovereignty” and in favor
of lifting the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
“We will continue working to give impetus to relations, communication
and dialogue with the Holy See and the Church in Cuba,” the minister
said.
Women with the Cuban human rights group Ladies in White hold hands
as they sing during a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
outside the cathedral in Havana, Feb. 21.
CNS PHOTO/ENRIQUE DE LA OSA/REUTERS |
Cardinal Bertone’s schedule included several public Masses and meetings
with religious from various congregations working in Cuba. He also visited
the Latin American School of Medicine, where 10,000 students from 30 countries,
many of them Catholic, are studying.
In Santa Clara, the cardinal dedicated and blessed the nation’s
first public monument to Pope John Paul.
The cardinal joined Cuban pilgrims in praying the rosary at the shrine
of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Cuban’s patroness. In Guantanamo-Baracoa,
he celebrated a Mass attended by thousands of Catholics from various towns
who also attended the dedication of the offices of the island’s
newest diocese.
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