Posted on 02/10/2020 6:41:21 PM PST by marshmallow
WASHINGTON -- New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan is set to meet with the president of the Republic of Cuba during a Feb. 7-12 trip to the island nation, which includes a visit with the cardinal of Havana and other Cuban prelates.
Cardinal Dolan flew to Havana early Feb. 7 with a small delegation from the New York area, and is scheduled to celebrate Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the patroness of Cuba, during the visit.
Cardinal Dolan met Cuban President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez in 2018, the year he took over as head of Cuba from Raul Castro. Diaz-Canel, 59, visited New York later in the fall and spoke before the United Nations. He then met with Cardinal Dolan at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral during that visit and gave the prelate a present: a statue of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre.
Granma, the official government newspaper published by the Communist Party, published Sept. 27, 2018, an article about the meeting, calling the cardinal "charismatic" and saying that Diaz-Canel emphasized the bonds of "respect and stable and fluid communication between the Catholic Church and the government of Cuba," during that visit.
Though Diaz-Canel is the president of Cuba, Raul Castro is the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, which is the most senior position in the communist state. Diaz-Canel, however, is expected to succeed him in 2021.
Following the 1959 Cuban revolution led by Raul Castro's brother Fidel, the Cuban government, which declared itself officially atheistic, seized properties that had served as the social, educational and community centers of Catholic life, and a decades-long tension between the government and the Catholic Church ensued. The number of Catholic priests and other religious serving in Cuba became limited and, like.....
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicregister.org ...
I've seen all the other places that I wanted to visit.
¿CUBA? ¿Cuando? Yo no se.
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