Castro meets with Cuba's Catholic leaders

Thursday, November 17, 2005 · Last updated 6:34 p.m. PT
Castro meets with Cuba's Catholic leaders
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro met with top leaders of Cuba's Roman Catholic church to mark 70 years of diplomatic ties with the Vatican, the island's official media reported Thursday.
Castro met Wednesday night with Cardinal Jaime Ortega - Cuba's top Catholic churchman - all of the island's bishops, and the Vatican's diplomatic representative here, Papal Nuncio Msgr. Luigi Bonazzi, the Communist Party daily Granma reported.
During a dinner, Castro recalled the late Pope John Paul II's historic 1998 visit to Cuba, praising the pontiff's "wonderful way of seeing and understanding the problems of the world today," the newspaper said in a front page story.
Communist Cuba became officially atheist in the years after the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. But the government removed references to atheism in the constitution more than a decade ago and allowed religious believers to join the Communist Party.
Diplomatic relations between the Cuban and the Vatican remained intact over the decades.

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