In TV message, pope tells Cubans that Jesus loves them

They also specify that only certain types of commercial and recreational ships may travel to Cuba, including “freight vessels, seagoing barges, tankers [transporting certain agricultural commodities] and towing vessels”.

In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI criticized Marxism and spoke of the need for “new models”.

The pope will give eight speeches or homilies during his four-day visit to the island and there will likely be at least a veiled reference to the state’s crackdowns on dissidents and restrictions on civil liberties.

The Vatican is hoping the recent restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba will soon translate into an end of the US economic embargo on the island.

“Me, I love the pope, precisely because he has spoken out very clearly, simply and concretely”, he told AFP. When pushed on the likelihood of such a meeting, he said, “You can’t exclude anything with this Pope”. “I have been practicing my Spanish”. Rehearsals for the Papal choir and orchestra began in Havana’s Revolution Square last week, ahead of the pope’s first visit to the island this weekend.

“All types of rosaries, plastic, metal, different colors, just an array of rosaries”, Vigoa said. Cuba fiercely rejects such conditions.

The functionaries at the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in both Cuba and The Bahamas as well as the Ministry of National Security in The Bahamas and the Embassy Staff networked to guarantee swift action in returning those nine (9) Bahamian men, who are now free from all of their sentences in the Republic of Cuba.

Against that backdrop, Lusarreta moved to the island and started work at his new parish in a poor Havana neighborhood known as October 10. He described the pope’s visit as one of rapprochement.

“Francis won’t explicitly be political at all when he’s here, but everything he does will be profoundly political in its implications”, said Austen Ivereigh, author of “The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope“. “Most established religious groups, however, reported an increased ability of their members to meet, worship, travel overseas , recruit new members, and conduct charitable, educational and community service projects”. Last Friday, Cuba announced it is pardoning 3,522 prisoners.

“He has really inspired people by his message, by his example”, O’Malley said. Jumbotrons will be set up outside the Capitol building so people can follow the pope’s speech.

Also heading to the nation’s capital is Rosana Araujo, an undocumented immigrant who lives in Miami.

He said: “Francis is not a liberal”.

Flynn, who is bringing along her knotted twine rosary, is going to Philadelphia.

And for Dion, a Catholic, seeing a pope would also be extraordinary.

Two Vatican officials speaking on conditions of anonymity said they did not expect the embargo issue to loom large during the trip, particularly not during his time in the United States. In the plaza, thousands of people attended Mass.