Francis meets Castro, preaches against ‘ideology’
HAVANA — Pope Francis met with former Cuban President Fidel Castro yesterday after urging thousands of Cubans to serve one another and not an ideology, delivering a subtle jab at the communist system during a Mass celebrated under the gaze of an image of Che Guevara in Havana’s Revolution Plaza.
The Vatican described the 40-minute meeting at Castro’s residence as informal and familial, with an exchange of books and discussion about big issues facing humanity, including Francis’ recent encyclical on the environment and the global economic system.
A photo provided by Alex Castro, Fidel’s son, showed the 89-year-old former president and Francis looking into each other’s eyes as they shook hands, the pope in his white vestments and Castro in a white button-down shirt and Adidas jacket.
Latin America’s first pope is credited by many Cubans with opening a path to the future by mediating the warming diplomatic relations between their country and the United States.
Presidents Obama and Raul Castro have since reopened embassies in each other’s countries, held a personal meeting, had at least two phone calls and launched a process aimed at normalizing ties in fields ranging from trade and tourism to telecommunications.
Francis called on both Fidel and Raul Castro after celebrating Mass in Havana’s main plaza on his first full day in Cuba.
Francis wound his way slowly through the masses, stopping to kiss children held up to him.
The head of the opposition group Ladies in White said 22 of the 24 members of her group who wanted to attend Mass were prevented from going by Cuban security agents. Two other wellknown Cuban dissidents said agents detained them after the Vatican invited them to the pope’s vespers service at the Cathedral of Havana.