Raul Castro Contemplates a Return to Catholicism
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=111179
HAVANA TIMES — Cuban President Raul Castro told the media in Italy this morning that he sympathizes so much with Pope Francis that he could return to embrace Catholicism, reported dpa news.
“I read all the speeches of the pope,” Castro said in a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, after a one-hour audience with the pontiff at the Vatican.
“If the Pope continues to speak in that fashion, sooner or later I will begin to pray again and return to the Catholic Church, and I’m not joking,” said the brother of Fidel Castro.
While recalling that he was educated at a Jesuit school, Castro said the Argentine Pope joked with him saying that he [Raul] attended “many more masses” than him.
Pope Francis Receives Raul Castro in Private Audience
Cuban President Raul Castro, was received Sunday in a private audience at the Vatican by Pope Francis, mediator in the historic rapprochement taking place between the United States and Cuba since last December.
Castro arrived in the Paul VI Hall around 9:30 am (7:30 GMT). After about an hour of talks, the Pope said goodbye to the Cuban leader with a long and cordial shaking of hands, the Vatican Radio reported.
Castro gave Jorge Mario Bergoglio a commemorative medal of the 200 years of the Cathedral of Havana, of which only 25 were produced, and a painting by Cuban artist Kacho present in the delegation. The painting depicts a cross formed by boats traveling with immigrants and, according to the Cuban president, is a tribute to the commitment of the pontiff with refugees and their journey in July 2013 to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
“I thank the Holy Father for his contribution to the rapprochement between Cuba and the United States,” Castro told reporters after the meeting.
Both Washington and Havana acknowledged the role of the Argentine Pope, 78, in the negotiations to resume diplomatic relations between the two historic enemies after 50 years. In addition, the pope is scheduled to visit both Cuba and the United States this coming September.
After the audience at the Vatican, Castro moved to the residence of Italian Prime Minister, Palazzo Chigi, to have a meeting that also icluded Matteo Renzi, the current president of the Council of Ministers, which was followed by the press conference.
Raul Castro made his stop in Rome on his flight back from Moscow, where he participated in the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. The event was boycotted by most Western leaders to protest the conflict in the Ukraine.
The exact dates of the Pope’s visit to Cuba have not yet been confirmed, but it will be before his expected arrival in Washington on September 23, from where he will also travel to New York and Philadelphia.
The last pope to visit Cuba was Benedict XVI in 2012. Pope John Paul II did the same back in 1998, in a historical tour that improved relations between the Cuban government and the Catholic Church.
The influence of the Catholic Church in secular Cuba has been growing in recent years. It has become a regular interlocutor of the Castro government. In 2010 the Church brokered the release of some 100 political prisoners.
Cuba: An Overweight Country
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=111097
France's Hollande meets Fidel and Raul Castro in Havana
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32688778
French President Francois Hollande has met Cuba's 1959 revolutionary leaders Fidel and Raul Castro on a historic trip to Havana.
Mr Hollande also called for an end to the decades-long US trade embargo against Cuba.
He said the embargo badly damaged development of the island.
Mr Hollande is the first French president to visit Cuba since 1898, and the first Western leader on the island since the 1980s.
President Hollande and Fidel Castro spoke for an hour, according to Liberation journalist Laure Bretton who tweeted his comments (in French) after the meeting.
"I had in front of me a man who had made history," Mr Hollande told her.
He later met Fidel's brother and current President Raul Castro.
Speaking earlier on Monday at the University of Havana, Mr Hollande said France would do its utmost to ensure that "the measures which have so badly harmed Cuba's development can finally be repealed".
He was referring to the US trade embargo, which remains in place, although relations between the US and Cuba have improved in recent months.
The diplomatic thaw between Cuba and the US was announced in December.
Mr Hollande announced plans to double the number of scholarships to enable Cuban students to continue their studies in France, as part of attempts to increase academic and scientific co-operation between the two nations.
The president's first appointment on Monday morning was to bestow France's highest award, the Legion of Honour, on the head of the Catholic Church in Cuba, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
The Cuban Catholic Church has acted as a mediator between dissidents and the Communist government.
'Great emotion'
The BBC's Will Grant in Havana says that unlike some other European countries, France has long maintained reasonably good relations with Cuba and wants to benefit from the new economic openness.
After landing at Havana airport, Mr Hollande said the visit was a moment of "great emotion".
Before arriving, he told reporters that France sought to "be the first among European nations, and the first among Western nations, to be able to say to the Cubans that we will be at their side if they decide themselves to take needed steps toward opening up".
A number of high-ranking US and European politicians have visited Cuba since 17 December, when the US and Cuba announced they would move towards re-establishing diplomatic ties.
They include New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini and top diplomats from Japan and Russia.
But Mr Hollande is the first Western leader in Cuba since Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzales in 1986.