After a warm reception by multitudes who attended Mass in Havana’s Revolution Square a day earlier, Pope Francis heads east to Holguin, Cuba, where he will hold a second Mass on Revolution Plaza.
On his arrival, he called for greater freedom for the Church and at a Mass in Havana, with Cuban leader Raul Castro looking on, he told the crowd to serve on another, not and ideology. “I think he himself might be a little nervous about arriving in the U.S. He’s never been there, his English is not very good, and he is a Latin American who shares many of his fellow countrymen’s diffidence toward the big, wealthy, energy-sucking superpower to the North”.
Leiva, formerly a member of the dissident group Ladies in White, writes critically about the Cuban government. He stressed that it was a “passing greeting”, not an official meeting, and that it was set up out of a “desire to show an attention for everyone, including dissidents”. Holguin’s plaza was packed with thousands of people waving flags as Francis traveled in his popemobile through the crowd. It is also in the area where Cuban President Raul Castro and his brother Fidel were brought up.
Pope Francis met with the brothers in Havana at the start of his Cuban trip.
The United States has said it has no plans to change the contract that grants it the 117-square-kilometer (45-square-mile) base site for $4,085 a month.
Pope Francis met with former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro on Sunday, according to Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.
Pope Francis has drawn widespread praise in Cuba for his role in supporting negotiations past year that led to a historic rapprochement between the USA and Cuba.
READ: Pope Francis in Cuba: “We do not serve ideas”. But some Congressional Republicans hope he doesn’t voice his progressive attitude on issues like climate change, guns, capitalism and immigration when he speaks to a joint session of Congress this Thursday.
In his homily Monday, Francis pressed some of the subtle themes he has developed during this delicate balancing act of a visit, telling thousands in Holguin the story of how Jesus picked a lowly and despised tax collector, Matthew, and instructed him to follow him without casting judgment.
“They are young people with existential sadness, they are young people who have committed their lives to a basic defeatism”, The pope added.
“I urge political leaders to persevere on this path and to develop all its potentialities as a proof of the high service which they are called to carry out on behalf of the peace and well-being of their peoples, of all America, and as an example of reconciliation for the entire world“.