Cuba's new president to meet Vatican envoy

Cuba's new president to meet Vatican envoy

February 26, 2008
Caribbean Net News

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba's new president Raul Castro has the first diplomatic encounter of his official leadership on Tuesday when he meets the second top figure in the Vatican, Secretary of State Tarciscio Bertone.

Bertone on Monday said he expected "clarity" and "sincerity" in his talks with the new leader. The meeting follows calls by the Vatican for reform on the communist-ruled island.

"I have come here at a special, extraordinary moment," Bertone told a joint news conference with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

Cuban bishops issued a statement Monday about the new parliament and Raul Castro, elected president on Sunday after 19 months standing in for his brother Fidel, with old allies also filling key government posts.

They said they were praying the president and parliament "would have the light of the Almighty to move forward decisively these transcendent measures that we know must be gradual, but which can satisfy the longing and worries expressed by Cubans."

Cardinal Tarciscio Bertone. AFP PHOTO

Bertone's visit marks the 10th anniversary of a historic visit by the previous pope, John Paul II. He is to meet Raul in Havana's Palace of the Revolution after holding masses during a tour of four provinces.

"The Church wishes to be able to expand without limits its sphere of activity to all fields, to contribute with perseverance to the common good of the Cuban people," he said during a service in Havana broadcast live on television.

He added that the church wanted "to be ever more present and active in the heart of society" in Cuba, helping the poor, "the marginalized, displaced or imprisoned."

Bertone is a charismatic cardinal who has experience negotiating with Orthodox Russia and Communist China. It is his third visit to Cuba, but his first as the Vatican's secretary of state.

He expressed his "respectful greetings" to Fidel Castro and his "best wishes" for the health of the veteran revolutionary leader, who was sidelined by intestinal surgery in 2006.

Bertone, who met with Fidel Castro on his last visit in 2005, said he had seen "a great openness to dialogue and cooperation in all of the country's leaders," which he said boded well for relations between the state and the Catholic Church there.

Cuban dissidents called on Bertone ahead of his visit to urge Fidel Castro's successor to release the communist regime's political prisoners.

"I hope Cardinal Bertone will intervene to get the release of my comrades ... and all other political prisoners," Oscar Espinosa, who was among 75 dissidents rounded up in a 2003 crackdown, told AFP on Thursday.

Bertone hailed as "positive" the recent freeing of certain prisoners, but said he had not called for amnesties.

His talks with the president were also expected to cover the issue of access to communications and education.

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