Pope Francis Cuba Visit: Dissidents Prevented From Meeting With Pontiff

Ahead of his first US visit, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Cuba Sunday before hundreds of thousands of worshipers in Havana’s Revolution Square.

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro (R) writes in a book as Pope Francis (L) and Castro’s wife Dalia Soto del Valle look on in Havana, Cuba, September 20, 2015.

The latest developments in Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba and the United States.

According to the head of the opposition group Ladies in White, 22 out of 24 members of the group were not able to attend Sunday’s mass in Havana’s main plaza due to Cuban security agents denying them access to the area. The had pope wanted to “greet” them without having a “specific initiative” planned, he said, adding that there is “a desire to manifest attention towards everyone, also to the dissidents”.

The Cuban government had anticipated that some 100,000 people would turn out to see Pope Francis.

Right now, Pope Francis is traveling across Cuba.

Since his brother, Raul, took over Cuba’s presidency in 2008, Fidel’s public appearances have been rare, leading to much speculation around his health and whereabouts.

Pope Francis has been praised by many Catholics for his progressive ideals.

“For some months now, we have witnessed an event which fills us with hope: the process of normalizing relations between two peoples following years of estrangement”, Francis said on the tarmac of Jose Marti worldwide Airport, the AP reported.

Pope Francis presented Fidel Castro with a link to the past Sunday: poems by a Jesuit teacher forced to flee Cuba after his one-time student – the now-ailing Marxist icon – led a revolution.

Speaking in his homily at a large outdoor Mass in Holguín’s Revolution Plaza, Francis said Jesus challenges humanity to believe in the possibility of personal transformation. Later, he was scheduled to go to Santiago on Cuba’s eastern end before flying Tuesday to Washington for the USA leg of his trip to the two former Cold War foes. He will also visit New York and Philadelphia.

Many of them voiced hope that the Argentine pontiff, who played a key role in brokering the recent US-Cuban rapprochement, would be able to persuade the United States to give up the Guantanamo Bay naval base on which it holds a permanent lease under a 1903 treaty.

“We’re encouraging people to bring their lawn chairs and their blankets and come and participate, it’ll be a celebration, a joyful event”, said Taylor.

Francis is the third pope to visit Cuba, after St. John Paul II in 1998 and Benedict XVI in 2012.