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March 29, 2012

Pope criticizes US embargo, renews call for more freedom in Cuba

Pope Benedict XVI is assisted from his plane at the end of his pastoral visit to Mexico and Cuba at Ciampino airport in Rome March 29.

HAVANA - Preparing to leave Cuba at the end of a three-day pastoral visit, Pope Benedict XVI made his first reference to the U.S. embargo of the island and the embargo's impact on the country's poor.

All Cubans need to work together to build a renewed and reconciled society, but progress is difficult given a "lack of material resources, a situation which is worsened when restrictive economic measures, imposed from outside the country, unfairly burden its people," the Pope said March 28 during his official farewell ceremony. He did not mention the United States by name.

Published in International
March 26, 2012

Pope thanks Latin American bishops, urges continued evangelization

Using an electronic device, Pope Benedict XVI lights the statue of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) after celebrating a vespers service with bishops from Mexico and Latin America at the Cathedral of Our Most Holy Mother of Light in Leon, Mexico, March 25.

LEON, Mexico - Pope Benedict XVI thanked Latin America's bishops for their hard work in a troubled region and urged them to continue the evangelization campaign he launched with them at their first meeting five years earlier.

The Pope spoke during a vespers service at Leon's cathedral March 25, the second and last full day of his visit to Mexico. The congregation included about 130 Mexican bishops, along with representatives of other national conferences in the Latin American bishops' council, CELAM.

Pope Benedict said the bishops deserved the "gratitude and admiration" due to "those who sow the Gospel amid thorns, some in the form of persecution, others in the form of social exclusion or contempt." He also recognized that they suffered from shortages of money and personnel and "limitations imposed on the freedom of the church in carrying out her mission."

Published in International