Connect with us

International

President of Cuba meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican

President of Cuba meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican
Photo: @DiazCanelB

June 20 |

Pope Francis received this Tuesday at the Holy See the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who is on a tour of several European countries, where they discussed issues on the bilateral and international agenda.

According to a Vatican communiqué, during the talks at the Secretariat of State “the importance of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Cuba was discussed, evoking the historic visit of St. John Paul II in 1998, of which it is the 25th anniversary”.

The note continues that during the meeting they discussed the situation in Cuba, the contribution offered by the Church, “especially in the field of charity”, as well as “some international issues of mutual interest and underlined the importance of maintaining the commitment to always promote the common good”.

According to the Vatican press service, the private audience held in the room adjacent to the Paul VI Hall lasted a little more than 30 minutes after Francis expressed to the Cuban leader “I am delighted to see you here, I am delighted that you have come”.

Advertisement
20250407_mh_renta_728x90
20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

For his part, Díaz-Canel affirmed that he had a “frank” conversation with Pope Francis during their 40-minute meeting on Tuesday at the Vatican.

“It was a frank conversation. We confirmed broad coincidences on pressing issues of the international agenda for humanity,” Díaz-Canel wrote on Twitter, where the Cuban presidency disseminated images of the meeting.

The Cuban president added that it was “pleasant” to meet again with the pontiff – whom he had already met during Francis’ visit to the island in 2015 – to whom he conveyed “the deep affection and wishes for the full recovery of the Cuban people.”

Later, Diaz-Canel met with His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, accompanied by Monsignor Daniel Pacho, Undersecretary for the Multilateral Sector of the Section for Relations with States and International Organizations.

The Cuban head of state arrived at 10:00 a.m. (local time) at the Vatican headquarters where he was received by the head of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza.

Advertisement
20250407_mh_renta_728x90
20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Although this is the fourth meeting between Diaz-Canel and His Holiness, it is the first as president and he is the third Cuban leader to travel to the Vatican since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

In line with the presidential agenda, the Cuban leader will meet this same day with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as part of his official visit to Italy as part of his international tour of Europe.

International

The Pope’s funeral procession through the center of Rome worries the Italian authorities

The complexity of the transfer of Pope Francis’ coffin through the center of Rome, from St. Peter’s Vatican to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he will be buried, is the main concern for the Italian authorities, the head of Civil Protection, Fabio Ciciliano, acknowledged on Thursday.

That part of the device, which will take place on Saturday after the funeral, presents important logistical, infrastructure and security challenges, the official admitted at a press conference, in which he also said that the number of faithful who will pass through the burning chapel before, about 61,000, will increase in the coming hours.

On Saturday, after the funeral, his body will be taken in a vehicle in a solemn passage to the Roman basilica of Santa María La Mayor, to be buried in a chapel, as the Argentine pontiff arranged in life, which will collapse the center of the Italian capital.

“I remember that the burial ceremony will be a private ceremony, while immediately after the faithful will be given the opportunity to reach the side of their holiness, and obviously the sustained concentration of faithful must be taken into great consideration,” said Ciciliano.

The route of this funeral procession, which will extend over six kilometers, will be analyzed today in a meeting by those responsible for the organization, who are carrying out a “complete evaluation”.

Ciciliano focused on the exceptional fact that Francisco’s death has coincided with the Jubilee year, and that this is also a time when Rome is usually full of tourists, so it is difficult to estimate the number of people who will attend to follow the funeral.

Despite warning that parallels cannot be established with the death of John Paul II in 2005, Ciciliano reiterated that “we are estimating around 200,000 people, although we do not know if they will be deployed in St. Peter’s Square or along the funeral procession” to Santa María la Mayor.

Meanwhile, the number of faithful who will pass through the burning chapel of Pope Francis, which until 1:00 p.m. this Thursday already amounted to 61,000, will rise significantly in the next few hours, until Friday it closes at 19.00 (17.00 GMT) for the ceremony of closing the coffin before the funeral on Saturday, he anticipated.

The person in charge drew attention to the significant drop in temperatures at night, so he called on the faithful to dress like “an onion” to be able to add or remove layers as needed.

Regarding the arrival of new faithful in Rome, he said that there are 260,000 seats available to travel by train, and that on the day of the funeral about 500 buses to the Italian capital are expected to arrive.

“There will be state, commercial and private flights that will arrive at Fiumicino and Ciampino airports. We have also maintained Pratica di Mare as an airfield,” he added.

He also referred to the reception of the hundreds of world leaders and authorities who will be in Rome to attend the funeral, including the president of the United States or the kings of Spain, which he considered “very complex.”

The preparations “are being developed in close collaboration with the Prefecture of Rome for those aspects related to security, since there are elements that overlap,” he said.

This difficulty grows due to the fact that after the funerals most of these leaders will return immediately, but others prefer to stay in the city.

After the funeral, the second phase of the Civil Protection deployment will be activated, which includes the conclave to elect the new pope, when the forecasts point to an even greater number of faithful, which will also coincide with other massive events such as the final of the Soccer Cup on May 14.

Continue Reading

International

A group of the poor and a delegation of migrants will participate in the funeral and burial of the pope on Saturday

A group of poor and needy and a delegation of migrants and rescuers will be present at the funeral and burial of Pope Francis this Saturday, April 26, as a last tribute to the pontiff, who was always close to the most disadvantaged and homeless people.

“A group of poor and needy people will be present on the steps that lead to the Papal Basilica of Santa María la Mayor to pay the last tribute to Pope Francis before the burial of the coffin,” the Vatican reported in a statement on Thursday.

 

Continue Reading

International

The Arab League supports Hamas handing over control of Gaza and weapons to the Palestinian Authority

The Arab League expressed on Thursday its support for the Hamas Islamist group handing over control of the Gaza Strip to the Government of the Palestinian National Authority (ANPA), of President Mahmud Abbas, who assured that he must be the only one who controls weapons and represents the Palestinians before the international community.

The pan-Arab organization expressed its position on Thursday in a statement issued after the Arab ministerial meeting held on Wednesday at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, coinciding with a claim by Abbas that the ANP assumes political control of Gaza, and that Hamas releases the 59 Israeli hostages it still holds and lay down their arms.

“The Council of the Arab League affirmed its support for President Mahmoud Abbas’ vision regarding the importance of achieving national (Palestinian) unity based on the commitment to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),” the main member of the ANP that governs in small areas of the occupied West Bank, said the statement of the organization composed of 22 states.

In the note, the agency avoided mentioning Hamas by name, although it stressed that the PLO is the “only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”, and invited all Palestinian factions to “comply with the political program and international obligations” of the ANP.

He also insisted that the different Palestinian factions “comply with the principle of a (only) system (of government), a law and a legitimate weapon, and allow the Government (of the ANP) to assume the responsibilities of governance in Gaza within the framework of the political and geographical unity of the Palestinian territory occupied (by Israel) in 1967”.

On the other hand, the statement “categorically rejected any form of displacement of the Palestinian people from their land, under any name, circumstance or justification, considering this part of the crime of genocide” against the inhabitants of the strip, where more than 51,000 people died in Israeli attacks since October 2023.

The Arab Foreign Ministers expressed, on the other hand, their support for the conference that France and Saudi Arabia plan to hold next June under the auspices of the UN to support the “two-state solution”, one Palestinian next to the Israeli.

They also showed their support for the Egyptian plan, supported last March by Arab and Islamic countries, for the reconstruction of Gaza, and “urging countries and financial institutions to quickly provide the financial support necessary for its implementation.”

Hamas has controlled Gaza since its militiamen expelled the forces of the ANP Government from the Strip in 2007, controlled by the secular group Fatah, also from Abbas and majority within the PLO.

The enmity between Hamas and Fatah resides, in addition to ideological differences, in the discrepancies that when facing the defense of a Palestinian State, since while Islamists advocate armed struggle and “resistance” against the Israeli occupation, the ANP opts for politics and negotiations.

Continue Reading

Trending

Central News