Vatican cardinal heads to Cuba

Vatican cardinal heads to Cuba
13.02.2006

A Vatican cardinal is heading to Cuba this week, saying he will stress
Pope Benedict XVI's recent message that the Catholic Church cannot
remain on the political sidelines in the fight for social justice.
Cardinal Renato Martino, who heads the Vatican's pontifical council for
justice and peace, leaves Wednesday for Havana to present a compendium
of the church's social doctrine. In a statement, he said he hoped to
have a meeting with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, though there was no
confirmation.

In his first encyclical released Jan. 25, Benedict said the church had
no interest in taking the place of government in creating a more just
social order. But he wrote that the church can't remain on the sidelines
in the search for justice, either. Martino said that message would be
the "leit motiv" of his visit to Cuba, as well as his subsequent travels
to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

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 Cuba and the Vatican remained intact over
the decades. Relations between churches and the Cuban state climaxed in
January 1998 when Pope John Paul II visited, the first and only trip to
the island by a Roman Catholic pope, reports the AP.

N.U.

http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/13-02-2006/75888-Cuba-0