Vatican officials confirmed this week that Pope Benedict XVI would visit Cuba and Mexico some time before Easter next year, in a landmark trip that would mark the first papal visit to Cuba since Pope John Paul II visited the communist but predominantly Catholic island state in 1998.
During the celebration of a mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on 11 December honoring Mexico’s Virgin of Guadalupe, Benedict mentioned the travel plans and said he hoped God would guide residents of Latin America to “build a society based on the development of good, the triumph of love, and the spread of justice.”
Vatican press officials confirmed the visit would take place before the Easter week celebrations that begin 1 April. Vatican officials said the exact dates had not yet been finalized. Some Italian newspapers reported the trip would take place from 23 to 28 March, though they did not specify how much of that time would be spent in Cuba and how much in Mexico.
The visit to Cuba is the more significant of the two likely stops on the visit. According to the Vatican, the Cuba trip has been in the works since 2008, when Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, visited Cuba for the second time in three years in part to discuss the possibility of a papal visit with Cuban officials.
But the idea was not raised in public until 10 November, when Benedict said he had the “desire” to visit the island. However, given the 84-year-old pontiff’s frail health and limited travel in recent months, it was far from certain the trip would actually materialize.
If he is able to go, it would be Benedict’s second trip as pope to the Latin America region, home to more than 500 million Catholics. He visited Brazil four years ago and has plans to return there in 2013 for World Youth Day.