Pope to Visit Cuba Before U.S. Trip
Pope Francis is to visit Cuba before his arrival in the United States in September, the Vatican has announced.
In a short statement issued this morning, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said:
“I am able to confirm that the Holy Father Francis, having received and accepted the invitation from the civil authorities and bishops of Cuba, has decided to pay a visit to the island before his arrival in the United States for the trip announced some time ago.”
The Vatican has yet to give a precise date for the trip, the first papal visit to Cuba since Benedict XVI visited there in March 2012. Pope St. John Paul II visited the communist island nation in 1998.
The visit comes on the heels of restored diplomatic ties between the US and Cuba, brokered by the Holy See earlier this year.
The exact dates of the Pope's U.S. trip have also yet to be confirmed, but the Holy Father is slated to canonize Blessed Junipero Serra on September 23 in Washington D.C., address a joint session of the United States Congress in the U.S. capital on September 25, and celebrate a papal Mass on the occasion of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia on September 27.
- Keywords:
- apostolic trips
- cuba
- pope francis
- united states
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
