For most people in Latin America, Holy Week means religious obligations, heavy traffic, closed stores, crowded beaches, and dry laws.  In Cuba, however, Holy Week has been a regular week over the last several decades –until this year.

The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Caribbean island nation of Cuba was very fruitful for Catholics who for many years have encountered great difficulties in practicing their faith.  The Holy See visited Cuba last week and met with current regime leader Raul Castro, who has been easing up on the government’s restrictions on freedom of religious expression imposed during the rule of his older brother Fidel.

As a result of the Pope’s visit to Cuba and his meeting with government and religious leaders, Raul Castro declared Good Friday a new national holiday.  Catholics will be able to conduct the traditional Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross) solemn processions in La Habana.  Religious processions and pilgrimages were outlawed in Cuba back in 1961.  Eight years later, Fidel Castro became a real-life Grinch as he took Christmas away from Cubans by declaring that December 25th was no longer a national holiday.  Both holidays were reinstated when Pope John Paul II the Saint visited the island in 1998.

At a Mass celebrated in the Revolution Plaza in La Habana, the Pope stated that: “We have to rejoice at the fact that in Cuba steps are being taken so that the Catholic Church can carry on her intractable mission of free and public expression of faith.”  As the Pope addressed those congregated, Raul Castro looked on.

The Catholic Church in Cuba has been meeting with the Raul Castro regime since 2010 to smooth out their differences.  Those meetings resulted in the release of 130 political prisoners from Cuban jails and allowed the Church to once again conduct social outreach.

In addition to the Good Friday holiday, the Via Crucis and Mass will be televised for the first time in the history of Cuban State Television –the only TV signal approved for broadcast in the Caribbean island nation.

President Laura Chinchilla will travel to the Vatican to meet with the Holy See later this year.

Source: La Prensa (Honduras)