Cuba's Ladies in White leader meets Pope Francis

Posted on Wednesday, 05.08.13

Cuba's Ladies in White leader meets Pope Francis
Miami Herald Staff

Pope Francis exchanged a brief greeting Wednesday with Cuban dissident
Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, in the Vatican at the end of
a general audience held in St. Peter's Square.

Soler is on a worldwide tour to publicize the plight of Cuban dissidents
and to ask for moral and spiritual support to end repression in Cuba.
The Ladies in White are a group of Cuban women who originally came
together to march on behalf of their husbands and relatives rounded up
during Cuba's so-called Black Spring of 2003. After the men were freed,
the women — who dress in white — continued to march on behalf of other
political prisoners.

Soler handed the pope two letters from the wives of political prisoners,
according to the French news agency AFP. Soler later told the media that
the pope had given her a blessing and asked her to continue her fight.

During the visit of Pope Emeritus Benedict, then Pope Benedict XVI, to
Cuba last year, the Ladies in White had asked to meet with him but were
rebuffed — even though the pope took time for a meeting with former
Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Prior to Benedict's visit there also was
friction between dissident groups, who wanted the church to take a more
activist role in addressing their concerns, and Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega.

The Ladies in White met with Ortega last June and asked for his help on
two fronts: interceding on their behalf with Cuban leader Raúl Castro in
the face of stepped-up repression against the group and to pass on their
request for an audience with the pope.

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