Pope prays for 'those who suffer' in Cuba

SANTIAGO – Pope Benedict XVI yesterday urged Cubans to “work for justice” during a ceremony to pay homage to the island’s patron…

SANTIAGO – Pope Benedict XVI yesterday urged Cubans to “work for justice” during a ceremony to pay homage to the island’s patron saint, and said he was close to those “deprived of freedom”, an apparent reference to political prisoners in the communist-run nation.

A steel band played Ave Maria and onlookers waved Cuban flags as the pontiff visited a basilica housing the doll-sized figurine of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre on the second day of a papal trip the Catholic Church hopes will foster renewed faith and increase its influence in Cuba.

Pope Benedict flew from eastern Cuba to Havana for a meeting in the afternoon with Cuban president Raúl Castro.

Cuba is marking the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the icon of the Virgin, an important figure for both the church and Santeria, the Afro-Cuban religion that is a legacy of Cuba’s slavery era and which knows her as Ochun, the goddess of love.

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Found floating in a bay in 1612 by fishermen, the icon was revered by Cuba’s independence heroes and is enshrined at the basilica in the town of El Cobre in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra mountains from which Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara staged the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Thousands of Cubans of all denominations go to the shrine each year to pay tribute to the Virgin, to whom they have left an array of offerings, from signed baseballs and judo medals to bags of human hair and letters, seeking miracles and blessings.

Long-time Cuban resident Ernest Hemingway donated his 1954 Nobel literature prize to the icon, but the medallion has been stored away after it was briefly stolen in the 1980s.

The pope was inspired to visit after he saw images of a procession around the island last year of a replica of the figurine, also known as the Mambisa Virgin, that drew hundreds of thousands of people.

“I have entrusted to the mother of God the future of your country, advancing along the ways renewal and hope, for the greater good of all Cubans,” he said after praying in front of the gold-swathed wooden figure of the Virgin and child.

He urged Cubans to “work for justice, to be servants of charity and to persevere in the midst of trials”, and offered a prayer to the Virgin “for the needs of those who suffer, of those who are deprived of freedom, those who are separated from their loved ones” – a clear reference to political prisoners as well as Cuban exiles.

Cuba has a history of jailing or harassing government opponents, who it views as mercenaries in the pay of the United States, its long-time ideological foe. – (Reuters)