Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis visited former Cuban president Fidel Castro (above) following Mass in Havana’s Revolution Square yesterday in front of hundreds of thousands of Cubans.

The face-to-face meeting at the former Cuban president’s home in Havana was described as ‘cordial and informal.’ It lasted over half an hour and was observed by the Papal entourage and Castro’s family including Fidel Castro’s wife Dalia and their grandchildren.

During the meeting, Pope Francis recalled that his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI was asked by Mr Castro to recommend a book to read during their meeting in 2012. Three years later, Pope Francis kept his promise and brought the former president two books on spiritual life and the Gospels by Don Allesandro Pronzato, a book and two CDs of homilies by Jesuit priest and Castro’s old school teacher Fr Armando Llorente, and copies of the recent encyclical on the environment Laudato Si’. In return, Mr Castro presented the Pope with a copy of Fidel and Religion inscribed with the message “To Pope Francis on the occasion of his fraternal visit to Cuba.”

During Sunday Mass at Revolution Square, attended by President Raul Castro and Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the Pope paid tribute to the Cuban people before calling them on to ‘serve, rather than be served.’

“Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people,” the Pope told the congregation.

“God’s holy and faithful people in Cuba is a people with a taste for parties, for friendship, for beautiful things. It is a people which marches with songs of praise.  It is a people which has its wounds, like every other people, yet knows how to stand up with open arms, to keep walking in hope, because it has a vocation of grandeur.”

Pope Francis was greeted by President Raul Castro his arrival in Cuban capital, Havana, on Saturday to begin a ten-day trip to Cuba and the US. Upon his arrival, the Pope said the Cold War foes should ‘develop all… possibilities’ during the current thaw in relations and detente. The Pope, who heads to the US tomorrow, has also called for the Church in Cuba to have ‘the freedom and the means’ to pursue its mission.