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Benedict Prays To Cuba Patron Virgin Of Charity

Benedict Prays To Cuba Patron Virgin Of Charity

Last updated on: March 27, 2012 at 5:52 am by

Benedict Prays To Cuba Patron Virgin Of Charity 2012-03-27T05:52:07-07:00

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SANTIAGO, Cuba (AP) — The power of a diminutive icon drew the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics to a bucolic hillside town in eastern Cuba on Tuesday for a moment of private prayer and reflection amid days of vast ceremonies and meetings with heads of state.

On the second day of his Cuban tour, the pope knelt silently before the Virgin of Charity of Cobre for several minutes, his eyes open and hands clasped. The crowned, wooden statue just over a foot (35 centimeters) tall stood on a covered table shrouded in blue and white cloth. The 84-year-old pontiff then rose with the help of two Cuban bishops, who held before him the text of a prayer.

Finally, Benedict approached the statue, lit a candle and stood in prayer as a choir sang hymns.

In a brief speech at the sanctuary, Benedict continued to hit on the themes of change and hope, words that carry extra weight in a country that often seems stuck in the 1950s, be it the rusty cars on its roads or the aging Communist leaders who have been in place since the 1959 revolution.

Benedict again expressed concern for prisoners and the enormous Cuban diaspora in South Florida and elsewhere, who he said are in his thoughts.

“I have entrusted to the Mother of God the future of your country, advancing along the ways of renewal and hope, for the greater good of all Cubans,” he said. “I have also prayed to the Virgin for the needs of those who suffer, of those who are deprived of freedom, those who are separated from their loved ones or who are undergoing times of difficulty.”

The pope pointedly referred to the icon by her popular name, La Virgen Mambisa, in a gesture to the many non-Catholics on the island who nonetheless venerate the statue as an Afro-Cuban deity. Mambisa is the word for the Cuban fighters who won independence from Spain at the turn of the last century.

While most Cubans are nominally Catholic, fewer than 10 percent practice the faith. Bringing more Cubans back to the pews is a key aim of Benedict’s trip to the Caribbean island.

“I appeal to you to reinvigorate your faith … that you may strive to build a renewed and open society, a better society, one more worthy of humanity,” he said Monday at a Mass in the nearby city of Santiago.

After visiting the shrine, Benedict planned to fly to Havana to meet with President Raul Castro and possibly Fidel Castro, though that had not been confirmed. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is in Havana undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, did not ask for an audience but would be welcome to attend Mass in the capital’s Revolution Square on Wednesday, a Vatican spokesman said.

During Monday’s Mass, the 84-year-old pontiff’s voice sounded tired and he seemed exhausted after a vigorous four days of travel. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, acknowledged Benedict’s fatigue but said his health was fine.

Just before the ceremony began, a man tried to enter an area reserved for foreign journalists, shouting anti-government slogans such as “Down with the Revolution! Down with the dictatorship!” He was led away by security agents. It was not clear who he was or what happened to him. The government did not comment.

Benedict’s trip to Cuba comes 14 years after Pope John Paul II’s historic tour, when the Polish pontiff who helped bring down communism in his homeland admonished Fidel Castro to free prisoners of conscience, end abortion and let the Roman Catholic Church take its place in society.

In an arrival speech Monday, Benedict gently pressed the longtime communist leaders to push through the reforms desired by their people, while also criticizing the excesses of capitalism. His words were subtle and appeared to take into account the liberalizing reforms that Raul Castro has enacted since taking over from his older brother in 2006, as well as the greater role the Catholic Church has played in Cuban affairs, most recently in negotiating the release of dozens of political prisoners.

The pontiff, who before starting his trip in Mexico said Marxism “no longer responds to reality,” said he hoped his visit would inspire and encourage Cubans on the island and beyond.

“I carry in my heart the just aspirations and legitimate desires of all Cubans, wherever they may be,” he said. “Those of the young and the elderly, of adolescents and children, of the sick and workers, of prisoners and their families, and of the poor and those in need.”

Castro told Benedict his country is committed to freedom of faith and has good relations with religious institutions. He also criticized the 50-year U.S. economic embargo and defended the socialist ideal of providing for those less fortunate.

“We have confronted scarcity but have never failed in our duty to share with those who have less,” Castro said, adding that Cuba remains determined to chart its own path and resist efforts by “the most forceful power that history has ever known” — a reference to the United States — to thwart the island’s socialist model.

Benedict then traveled by popemobile into Santiago, Cuba’s second city, barely waving through the glass to onlookers who lined the streets and waved flags.

“I thought this was amazing. This was such a labor of love and faith,” said Rita Freixas, a Miami Beach resident who hadn’t visited Cuba since her family left when she was 1 year old. She traveled back to the island with her two sons and a friend as part of a delegation organized by the Archdiocese of Miami. “I am so happy to be back here. I am so happy to have come.”

Late Monday, Benedict bedded down in a humble but air-conditioned house constructed in recent weeks with $86,000 in church funds, made of reinforced concrete designed to withstand a magnitude-8 earthquake.

It was just 200 yards (meters) from the El Cobre sanctuary, and Cuba is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Virgin’s discovery, a major reason for Benedict’s visit.

The statue is one of the most powerful Catholic icons in the world, and an object of pride and reverence for hundreds of thousands in Cuba. It was taken to Monday’s Mass on the top of a truck to the joy of the faithful present.

“She is a beauty, the most extraordinary thing,” Mercy Serra said as the statue made its way through the crowd. “She is the mother of all Cubans.”

___

Associated Press writer Peter Orsi reported this story from Havana and Andrea Rodriguez reported in Santiago. AP writers Nicole Winfield and Laura Wides-Munoz in Santiago contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP reporters covering the pope: www.twitter.com/(hashtag)!/AP/pope-visit

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