As Pope Francis makes his way toward the United States for his first visit to the country, he had another significant stop to make first: Cuba. The famous, former Cuban Leader Fidel Castro was able to meet with the pontiff for an intimate gathering after holy mass.
Pope Francis began the morning of Sunday, September 20 by touring Havana’s Revolution Square in the Popemobile, while preparing to hold a glorious Mass for the crowds of people who showed up to greet him. One person in particular, though, got to meet with him after he concluded Mass: the former Cuban ruler, who invited the pope back to his home, according to Vatican spokesman Father Lombardi.
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.
During their meeting, the pope gave Fidel a book and two CDs of homilies, as well as a copy of two encyclicals. In return, Fidel gave the pope an interview book, “Fidel and Religion,” with a special handwritten note in the front.
The meeting brought together the leader who shaped Cuba for the last half of the 20th century and Latin America's first pope, who many Cubans credit with opening a path to the future by mediating the warming diplomatic relations between their country and the United States. After his Cuba visit, the pope flies to Washington for his first ever trip to the United States.
Since the pope's historic mediation, Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro have 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 to tourism to telecommunications.
While most Cubans are Catholic, less than 10 percent practice their faith and Cuba is the least Catholic country in Latin America. The crowd was not as big as when St. John Paul II became the first pope to visit the island in 1998, but it drew people who seemed to genuinely want to be there and listen to Francis' message.
