Cuban bishops announce Pope Francis’ itinerary on the island

Cuban bishops announce Pope Francis' itinerary on the island
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com

Pope Francis will visit three Cuban cities and the National Sanctuary of
Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the shrine of Cuba's patron saint,
during a September visit to the island, the Conference of Catholic
Bishops of Cuba announced Monday.

The bishops said Francis would arrive in Cuba on Saturday, Sept. 19 and
remain on the island until Sept. 22 when he leaves from Santiago in
eastern Cuba for a trip to the United States.

Besides Santiago, the pope will visit Havana, Holguín, and the shrine of
Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre (Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del
Cobre). El Cobre is a small, copper-mining town about 12 miles outside
Santiago. Veneration of Our Lady of Charity, known affectionately in
Cuba as La Cachita, dates from 1612 when three salt collectors found a
small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary in the Bay of Nipe after a storm.
A plank attached to the statue, which is now in the shrine at El Cobre,
read "I am the Virgin of Charity."

The Archdiocese of Miami is planning a Sept. 18-22 Cuba pilgrimage that
will coincide with Francis' visit, said Mary Ross Agosta, spokeswoman
for the archdiocese. Further details on the trip should be available in
the next few days, she said, but the archdiocese pilgrims will remain in
Havana the entire time and won't follow the pope through Cuba.

The announcement comes on the heels of a private meeting Sunday between
Argentine-born Pope Francis and Cuban leader Raúl Castro in the Vatican.

"When the pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his
Masses and with satisfaction," Castro said at a news conference
following his meeting with the pope.

Castro was so impressed by the pontiff that he said, "If the pope
continues this way, I will go back to praying and go back to the church
and I am not joking."

Francis' trip to Cuba will be the third papal visit to the island in 17
years. Pope Benedict went in 2012, and Pope John Paul II visited for
five days in 1998.

After departing from Santiago, the pope will head to Washington, D.C.,
where he will meet with President Barack Obama on Sept. 23 and address
Congress. During his U.S. trip, the pope is also scheduled to speak
before the United Nations and visit Philadelphia.

As Castro left the Vatican, he told reporters that he once again thanked
the pope for his role in the United States-Cuba reconciliation that was
announced on Dec. 17. The pope offered the Vatican as one of the
locations for secret talks that led to a diplomatic breakthrough between
the two countries, and Francis gave personal letters to both Obama and
Castro urging them to find a way forward.

The United States and Cuba are in the process of negotiating a date for
resuming diplomatic relations and reopening their respective embassies.

Source: Cuban bishops announce Pope Francis' itinerary on the island |
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