Pope's visit to Cuba - Francis and Raul Castro – the odd couple

Pope's visit to Cuba: Francis and Raul Castro – the odd couple
Ahead of the Pope's visit to Cuba this weekend, the island's agnostic
regime has softened its stance on the Catholic church due to an unlikely
friendship
By Nick Squires, Havana8:00AM BST 17 Sep 2015

One is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the other the president
of an avowedly agnostic country, but a surprising rapport has developed
between Pope Francis and Raúl Castro of Cuba.
The unusually warm relations between two men with such apparent
differences will be on display this weekend when the Latin American Pope
makes his first visit to Cuba, arriving on Saturday in Havana.
The two leaders have a firm foundation on which to strengthen their
relationship when they meet on Sunday at the Palacio de la Revolucion in
Havana.
It is not just that the Pope played a crucial behind-the-scenes role
last year in engineering the diplomatic rapprochement between Havana and
Washington, after 54 years of enmity.
There is also the fact that Raúl Castro was so impressed with the
Argentinian pontiff when he visited the Vatican in May that he said that
he was seriously considering a return to Catholicism.
"If the Pope keeps going the way he's going, I'll go back to praying and
go back to the Church, and I'm not joking," President Castro said after
his talks with the Jesuit pontiff.
"When the Pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his
masses, and with satisfaction."

The Cuban leader, who was raised a Catholic and educated by priests from
the Pope's order, the Jesuits, said he had been impressed by the Pope's
"wisdom and modesty".
It was an extraordinary statement for the leader of a Communist country
which for decades was an atheist state, until slightly relaxing its
attitude to religion in the 1990s.
During his Vatican visit, Raúl Castro acknowledged that the Church had
been subject to crackdowns and repression over the years.
"I am from the Cuban Communist party, that doesn't allow [religious]
believers, but now we are allowing it, it's an important step," he said.

Although he has never before visited Cuba, apart from once changing
planes in Havana, Pope Francis is no novice when it comes to the
complicated politics of the island nation.
"The Pope has had his eyes on Cuba for a long time," said John Allen, a
Vatican analyst and an associate editor of Cruz, The Boston Globe's
website about all things Catholic.
"He wrote a book about Pope John Paul's visit in Cuba in 1998 (the book
was called "Dialogues between John Paul and Fidel Castro") and he was a
big player for two decades in CELAM, the Latin American bishops' council.
"Just as American bishops talk about Congress and the White House when
they get together for a beer, Latin American bishops talk about what is
going on in Cuba."
Pope Francis' frequent attacks on the iniquities of capitalism will have
been music to the ears of Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel, who have
together ruled Cuba with an iron fist since the revolution of 1959.

Since his election in March 2012, Francis has castigated capitalism for
leading to inequality, social despair and harm to the environment.
In July, during an eight-day tour of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay, he
described the "unfettered" pursuit of money as "the dung of the devil."
He criticised capitalism as an economic system that "has imposed the
mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion
or the destruction of nature."
The fact that the Vatican has consistently called for the US to lift its
crippling trade embargo against Cuba will also endear Francis to his hosts.
But there are fundamental points of disagreement as well.
The Vatican has called for greater religious freedom for Catholics in
Cuba and has put pressure on the Havana government to release political
prisoners held in prison.
The Catholic Church has strengthened its position in recent years,
spurred by two previous papal visits – that of John Paul II in 1998 and
then his successor, Benedict XVI, in 2012.
The Cuban government has given permission for churches to be restored
and two new ones to be built, as attitudes towards Catholicism have
softened.

Christmas Day and Good Friday were reinstated as national holidays and
religious believers are no longer stigmatised.
Just as Pope Francis has criticised capitalism, he has also highlighted
the injustices of Communism and authoritarian Socialism.
In his 1998 book on John Paul II's visit to Cuba, he called for
"corrupt, dictatorial and authoritarian governments" to be replaced by
democratic and participatory systems.
But any criticism he makes of the Cuban state is likely to be muted,
analysts said.
"There will be some mild language about human rights and religious
freedom. But the policy of the Vatican since John Paul II is that
Communism in Cuba is different from Communism in Eastern Europe, which
was characterised as an evil empire. The Vatican's strategy is
engagement, rather than confrontation," said Mr Allen.
The Pope will endeavour to push the pace of reform in Cuba, but the
approach is likely to be a soft one.
It will reflect the strategy adopted by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the head
of the Catholic Church in Cuba, whom critics accuse of being too
placatory towards the regime but whose defenders say has worked quietly
behind the scenes to effect change.
"Cuban exiles are bound to have some complaints after the visit, as they
did after the visits of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Francis will play
extremely well in Havana but he'll get much more mixed reviews in
Miami," said Mr Allen.

Source: Pope's visit to Cuba: Francis and Raul Castro – the odd couple -
Telegraph -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/11870358/Popes-visit-to-Cuba-Francis-and-Raul-Castro-the-odd-couple.html