Valley Catholics ready for Pope’s USA visit

Pope Francis met Cuba’s revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Sunday hours after warning Cubans to beware the dangers of ideology and the lure of selfishness as their country enters a new era of closer ties with the United States. Vatican officials described their 40-minute meeting as – quote – “informal and familial”.

Catholics from across the nation are getting ready for his arrival – this being the first trip for Pope Francis to the country.

Pope Francis will move on to the United States later today, where he will remain until Monday.

He particularly praised the “mission houses” in remote areas that he said “given the shortage of churches and priests, provide for many people a place for prayer, for listening to the word of God, for catechesis and community life”.

He also encouraged Cuba to grant more freedom to the Roman Catholic Church, which has re-emerged as a powerful force after decades of repression.

After serving mass in Havana’s Revolution Square, the first Pope from Latin America went to visit Fidel Castro at the former President’s home.

Cuban President Raul Castro and Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner were expected to be among those in attendance. A DUKE STUDENT’S IMPRESSION OF CUBAIn his homily in Holguin, a city of about 300,000, Francis pressed some of the subtle themes he has developed during this balancing act of a Cuban visit.

Pope Francis met Fidel Castro and his brother Raul on Sunday.

Cuba is an unfree society and the Pope has a duty to remind his hosts that wanting to preserve the social gains of the 1959 revolution is not an excuse for permanently depriving people of their right to choose their government.

During Mass Sunday, Ortega thanked the pope for his work promoting detente between Havana and Washington and called for reconciliation between Cubans living on the island and elsewhere.

“As we all know, this visit from Pope Francis comes in the context of his role in the U.S.-Cuba rapprochement process, and obviously to reach normalization relations with Cuba it will be a long and complex role”, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, a career member of the foreign service and charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy to Cuba, told pilgrims from the archdioceses of Boston and Miami during an evening reception September 20.

POPE FRANCIS (through interpreter): Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas.

As for Pope Francis, he’s scheduled to arrive in Washington D.C. Tuesday.

Ahead of his visit, Metro is offering a limited-edition protective cover featuring the pope to anyone purchasing a SmarTrip card at Metro sales offices.

President Castro welcomed him with a speech that hit repeatedly on some of the pope’s favourite themes: caring for the planet, fighting inequality and promoting peace.