{"id":2649,"date":"2015-09-23T08:49:58","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T12:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/diplomacy\/?p=2649"},"modified":"2016-02-20T13:52:51","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T18:52:51","slug":"pope-on-a-mission-pope-francis-visit-to-cuba-and-the-united-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/2015\/09\/pope-on-a-mission-pope-francis-visit-to-cuba-and-the-united-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope on a Mission-Pope Francis’ Visit to Cuba and the United States"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s Eastern Seaboard is in an uproar preparing for the Pope\u2019s visit this week. Security details are being deployed; an alternating majority of Manhattan\u2019s streets will be shut down, and large swaths of Washington, DC traffic will be rerouted in anticipation of Pope Francis\u2019 arrival. Thousands of people are expected to be in attendance at the Masses \u00a0held in Washington\u2019s Saint Matthew\u2019s Cathedral, New York\u2019s Madison Square Garden, and Philadelphia\u2019s Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul<\/a>.\u00a0 This is all part of a whirlwind North American tour for His Eminence the Pope, who has just concluded three days in Cuba, where hundreds of thousands<\/a> came out in Havana, Cuba on Sunday morning for a glimpse of the Holy Father.. The decision to visit both the United States and Cuba on the same trip was a very calculated, strategic decision on the part of the Pope, even if his reasons for visiting the two countries are very different.<\/p>\n

The reestablished diplomatic relationship between the United States and Cuba can largely be attributed to Francis\u2019 involvement in the negotiations. In October of last year, delegations from<\/a> the United States and Cuba met at the Vatican to continue their dialogue, after Pope Francis had written letters to President Obama and Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro appealing to shared interests. Not long after these meetings took place the United States and Cuba started to normalize relations, and this past April the two presidents shook hands at the Summit of the Americas in Panama<\/a>. Pope Francis was vital to this diplomatic success, and his decision to stop over in Cuba before his trip to the United States is a testament to his support of the normalization of this relationship.<\/p>\n

The Pope\u2019s visit to the two nations \u201cacknowledges his role in encouraging detente between them<\/a>,\u201d but also allows the Holy Father to address concerns about poverty and to remind people of their responsibility to assist others in need. Pope Francis intends to visit the homeless, impoverished, and imprisoned during his trip to the United States, in a marked departure from his Cuban itinerary<\/a>, where he visited with Cuba\u2019s youth and families. While much of his activity in Cuba can be attributed to sensitivity towards the Castro regime (making the elevation of social issues impolitic), the Pope\u2019s efforts to specifically highlight serious inequalities existing in the United States should not be ignored as hypocrisy or an inability to be evenhanded in judgement.<\/p>\n

That said, the Pope\u2019s visit to Cuba has been ripe with deference and sensitivity. The New York Times stated<\/a>,<\/p>\n

From his own experiences in the 1970s, when Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship, Francis knows the complexity, dangers and difficult compromises of coexisting with repressive authorities. For decades, the Cuban church has been wary of inciting the wrath of a Communist government that all but marginalized it after the 1959 revolution, when priests were cast out, religious schools were closed and the state was declared atheist.<\/em><\/p>\n

The same New York Times article references limitations of the Church in Cuban life, for it cannot run schools or hospitals and exists in deference to the government in all matters. Pope Francis spoke in defense of religious liberty, the importance of the family, and the \u201cneed to serve.\u201d Pope Francis clearly wants the Catholic Church to participate in providing more social services for the people of Cuba.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, along with morning Mass, Pope Francis had the opportunity to sit down with Fidel Castro and his family, and later met with President Ra\u00fal Castro. His meeting with Fidel Castro<\/a> lasted about 30-40 minutes and was described as \u201cvery familiar; very informal.\u201d The Pope had a much livelier conversation with the current president later in the day, with an exchange of gifts, and Castro was quoted saying, \u201che was so impressed with the Pope that he might even consider a return to the Church.\u201d The Miami Herald article notes that numbers of people participating in Cuba\u2019s religious orders are increasing, and with the current sitting President\u2019s blessing Cuba may very well see a resurgence in Catholicism in the once-atheist state.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis made every effort to avoid political posturing during his time in Cuba, except for references to the peace process in Havana<\/a> taking place between the Colombian government and their largest guerrilla organization, FARC (The Revolutionary Armed Forces in Colombia), and trying to inspire the Cuban government to open its doors to the Catholic Church. It does appear, however, that the very nature of the Pope\u2019s decision to visit Cuba before traveling to the United States made plenty of political points all on its own.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Sarah Ireland<\/strong> is a Deputy Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations. She is currently pursuing her M.A. in Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, where she is specializing in Foreign Policy Analysis and the Middle East.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow the Journal of Diplomacy on Twitter at\u00a0@JournalofDiplo<\/a><\/p>\n

Image Source<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s Eastern Seaboard is in an uproar preparing for the Pope\u2019s visit this week. Security details are being deployed; an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2939,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,174],"tags":[303,158,302,165],"class_list":["post-2649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-pick","category-featured-2","tag-catholic-church","tag-cuba","tag-pope-francis","tag-united-states"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2939"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2649"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3290,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2649\/revisions\/3290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/journalofdiplomacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}