Pope Francis Pays Courtesy Visit to Cuba President Raul Castro

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

The meeting came shortly after the pope warned thousands of Cubans that as Christians they should “serve people, not ideas”, and adding that ‘service is never ideological’. Born in Argentina, Francis is the first Latin American pope.

Pope Francis spends his third day Monday in Cuba, where he’s bringing his message to the people and the country’s longtime leader.

Leiva, formerly a member of the dissident group Ladies in White, writes critically about the Cuban government. He warned Cubans of embracing the “lure of selfishness”.

In 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. An atheist like his brother, Mr Castro surprised the Pope by giving him a sculpture of a life-sized Jesus Christ nailed to a cross made of oars and adorned with fishing nets.

Later Sunday, while Francis was “privately” meeting with Castro’s brother, Cuban president Raúl Castro, the pair exchanged gifts, Lombardi said. Later, he was to head to Santiago on Cuba’s eastern end before flying to Washington on Tuesday for the US leg of his two-nation trip to the former Cold War foes. Those four had attempted to deliver a letter to the pope, one of whom got close enough to make contact with Francis in his popemobile, UNPACU leader Jose Daniel Ferrer said.

“They told me that I didn’t have a credential and that I couldn’t go to the pope’s event that was taking place there in the Plaza of the Cathedral”, Roque said.

The Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, confirmed that dissidents were invited to events to receive a greeting from the pope, but he didn’t know why they didn’t arrive.

“The government of Cuba is finally showing signs of intelligence and recognizing it has committed many errors, as much in the area of religion as in the politics between the United States and Cuba”, he said.

Arriving on Saturday, Francis exhorted Cuba and the United States to deepen their detente, and encouraged Cuba to grant more freedom to the Roman Catholic Church, which has re-emerged as a powerful force after suffering decades of repression.

At El Cobre on Monday, Francis prayed for reconciliation among all Cubans, both at home and around the world.

As Washington, D.C., prepares for unprecedented security, the pope visited Cuba.