Francis to Cubans: Live revolution of tenderness

SANTIAGO, Cuba—Pope Francis ended his four-day trip to Cuba on Tuesday by calling on Cubans to rediscover their Catholic heritage and live a “revolution of tenderness,” powerful words in a country whose 1959 revolution installed an atheist, communist government that sought to replace the Church as the guiding force in people’s lives.

Flying to Washington to begin a six- day tour of the United States, Francis said he would not call for an end to the US trade embargo on Cuba as many on the island had hoped.

Francis told reporters the embargo was part of the USCuba normalization that he helped bring about through secret negotiations and “my desire is that they arrive at a good result, that they reach an agreement that satisfies both sides.”

He said he would discuss bilateral and multinational relations in a speech before Congress, but the embargo “isn’t mentioned.”

Before leaving for the United States, Francis spoke at a Mass at Cuba’s holiest shrine with President Raul Castro attending.

Revive religious heritage

The Pontiff’s homily in the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre was the latest in a series of carefully worded critiques of the Cuban system during his four-day stay.

At his Mass in Havana on Sunday, he urged thousands of Cubans to serve one another and not an ideology. He also encouraged them to refrain from “looking to one side or the other to see what our neighbor is doing or not doing,” words that resonated in a nation where the government controls most aspects of life.

Some 10 percent of Cubans regularly celebrate Mass, and the Church has been trying to seize on the softening of the Cuban system under Raul Castro to rekindle the country’s religious heritage.

“Generation after generation, day after day, we are asked to renew our faith,” the Pope said on Tuesday. “We are asked to live the revolution of tender- ness as Mary, our Mother of Charity, did.”

Francisco Elliott Jimenez, a 65-year-old mechanic, stood in a crowd about a block from the Cathedral of Santiago and said he was moved by Francis’ message.

“Revolution isn’t a political event. Revolution is evolution,” Jimenez said. “That’s what the Pope is asking for, that our way of thinking evolves. He’s opening a lot of people’s minds.”

The Pope spoke in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra mountains where Castro and his brother Fidel commanded a guerrilla army that eventually swept through the country and seized power in 1959.

After decades of official hostility to the Church, the Castro government has been gradually giving it greater space to operate in recent years, letting churches reopen and allowing priests to run education programs and extensive outreach to the poor, sick and elderly.

Critique of communism

Francis has carefully balanced his desire to work with the Castro government on its path of internal reform and detente with the United States with his longstanding critique of communism as a system that stifles the spirit.

“He left us with a spiritual and ethical message and emphasized strongly that Cubans must not stay enclosed among themselves, must open themselves to others and construct a country where the people think in diverse ways, but unified,” said Roberto Veiga, editor of Cuba Posible, a think tank focused on Cuba’s economic and social reforms.

Francis pleaded ignorance about the Cuban dissidents who say they were arrested by security agents when they tried to see him at Havana’s cathedral.

The Pope said he had no information about what came of the Vatican Embassy’s invitation for some dissidents to come to the cathedral to be among those who could greet the Pontiff on Sunday.

He stressed that no private meeting was ever planned but that he would have been happy to greet them in the crowd.