Pope To Visit Cuba To Endorse Church’s Growing Role

Pope Benedict XVI will travel in March to Cuba, where he's expected to endorse the growing dialogue between the church and the state. Here, an employee from the Rome's Biopark zoo holds a rare Cuban crocodile Wednesday, as he meets the pontiff at the Vatican. The crocodile will be returned to Cuba around the time the pope visits the island. (Osservatore Romano/AP)

When Pope Benedict XVI goes to Latin America in March, Mexico is an obvious choice, with nearly 100 million Catholics.

But communist-run Cuba is also on his itinerary. The 84-year-old pontiff does not travel often, and this leg of his trip will be a strong show of support for Cuba’s church leaders and their growing role in pushing President Raul Castro’s government for change.

More than anywhere else in Cuba, the Santa Rita church in Havana’s Miramar district is the place where religion and politics intersect.

Every Sunday after Mass, a few dozen activists known as the Ladies in White march along the street outside in the only act of public protest tolerated by the Castro government.

The origins of Pope Benedict’s upcoming trip to Cuba can partly be traced back to events at the church in the spring of 2010. At that time, government-organized mobs attacked the women outside the church as foreign television cameras rolled.

Cuba’s church leaders intervened, and in the dialogue with Raul Castro that followed, more than 100 jailed dissidents were freed. They included all of the Cuban inmates considered prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International. The women’s weekly protests continue today with the church’s protection.

Under Raul Castro, Cuba’s Catholic Church has recovered a degree of prominence it hasn’t had in 50 years. Castro said the island will welcome the pope with affection and respect, announcing he would pardon nearly 3,000 more prisoners in advance of the papal visit.

“This is a demonstration of the strength and generosity of the Cuban Revolution,” Castro said in a Dec. 23 speech to Cuba’s parliament. [More]

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