Cuba and the post-Fidel Castro Catholic church could begin a new relationship. The late Cuban leader had a volatile connection with the Catholic church. Major changes to Cuba’s one-party Communist system are predicted. Castro’s brother, Raul, has led Cuba since 2006 when illness forced Fidel to retire. He has released dozens of political prisoners under Read more
The Jesuit-educated Fidel Castro rejected the Church of his childhood following the 1959 Cuban revolution, and for two decades never met a bishop. But then came a book-long interview with a Brazilian friar, and growing closeness between Church and state in Cuba — as well as tantalizing signs that Castro was seeking reconciliation with his Read more
The relationship Fidel Castro had with the Church has often often speculated about Pope Francis’s condolence message to Raul Castro expressed his “sentiments of grief”. He promised to pray for Fidel. Jesuit-educated, Fidel Castro followed a Marxist-Leninist ideology. Believing the Church was a state enemy, he declared Cuba an atheist state. He seized all Cuba’s Read more
Pope Francis appeared to take aim at Cuba’s communist regime in comments at a Mass at Havana’s Revolution Square on Sunday. The Pontiff told the crowd that “service is never ideological”. Speaking in a plaza dominated by a towering portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara, the Pope told the crowd they should “serve people, not ideas”. Read more
Cuban President Raul Castro said he is so impressed by Pope Francis that he could be persuaded to return to the Catholic Church. Mr Castro and his brother Fidel suppressed the church in communist Cuba for more than half a century. President Raul Castro had a private meeting with the Pope in Rome on Monday. Read more
Cuba’s communist Government is on the brink of permitting the building of the first new Catholic church in the country since the Marxist revolution of 1959. The church will be built in country’s second city, Santiago de Cuba. Catholics in the city have been attending Mass in the street since Hurricane Sandy destroyed their previous ramshackle Read more
Three decades ago, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger rose to fame as the architect of the Vatican’s crackdown on liberation theology in Latin America, which he saw as a dangerous baptism of Marxist class struggle. That stance made Ratzinger a hero to anti-communist stalwarts everywhere, the perfect intellectual complement to John Paul II’s muscular challenge to the Read more
Pope Benedict was visiting Cuba as a pligrim, honouring Cuba’s patron on the 400th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin of Charity said Cuban Cardinal, Jamie Ortega. Ortega made the statements in a rare state TV address, granted to him by Cuban authorities. “There was great interest in this pilgrimage because the pope is determined Read more
There are rumours afoot that Fidel Castro may rejoin the Catholic Church. The chatter in Rome is that Castro is preparing to be readmitted to the Church when Pope Benedict visits Cuba next month. Speculation went viral as two Italian daily newspapers, La Repubblica and La Stampa reported that the committed revolutionary atheist and ailing octogenarian had Read more
It’s been a year of resurrection for Cuba’s Roman Catholic Church. Last November, it opened a new seminary — the first since Fidel Castro’s communist revolution all but shut down the church 50 years ago. In May, Cuba’s bishops finished brokering the release of 115 political prisoners. Though education is strictly the role of the Read more