Cuban President Attended Pope’s Mass in Havana

President Raul Castro was present at Havana’s Jose Marti Revolution Square, where Pope Benedict XVI officiated an open-air mass, on the last day of his apostolic visit to Cuba. Raul also attended the mass celebrated in Santiago de Cuba on Monday.

The Cuban head of State also attended the public mass officiated by the Supreme Pontiff in Santiago de Cuba on Monday, few hours after arriving in the island. Billions of people are participating in today’s mass.

Fidel Castro will also meet with Pope Benedict XVI in this capital on Wednesday as part of the visit of His Holiness to Cuba.

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Fidel Castro to Meet Pope Benedict XVI

Fidel Castro will meet with Pope Benedict XVI in this capital on Wednesday, on the Supreme Pontiff’s last day in Cuba.

In his recent reflection entitled “The Hard Times of Humanity”, the leader of the Cuban Revolution talked about the meeting with the head of State of the Vatican.

“I will happily greet His Excellency Pope Benedict XVI, as I did with Pope John Paul II in 1998, a man for whom contact with children and the humble raised feelings of affection,” the revolutionary leader wrote.

Fidel Castro said he decided to ask him for some minutes on his very busy schedule, after knowing from Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez about the Holy Father’s willingness to materialize that meeting.

On Monday, the first day of the Pope’s activities in Cuba, the Vatican’s spokesman, Federico Lombardi, told reporters about His Holiness’s wish to meet with Fidel Castro.

On Tuesday, Benedict XVI was welcomed at Havana’s Palace of the Revolution by President Raul Castro.

On Wednesday, the Pope will wrap up his visit to Cuba, after having officiated an open-air mass at Havana’s Jose Marti Revolution Square.

Taken from Prensa Latina