Cardinal says Castro told him pope welcome to visit Cuba

Published: 2005-10-13

ROME (CNS) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro said Pope Benedict XVI has the face of "a good angel" and would be welcome to visit Cuba, according to an Italian cardinal. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa met with the Cuban leader in Havana in early October. He said Castro paid tribute to the late Pope John Paul II as a "prophet of peace" and said he was favorably impressed by the new pope. "Castro asked me to transmit an invitation to visit Cuba to Pope Benedict, who he said inspires in him friendship and trust," Cardinal Bertone told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire. The cardinal quoted Castro as saying: "This pope is a good person, he has the face of a good angel. I know, because I'm a scholar of faces." Pope John Paul visited Cuba in 1998. Pope Benedict has not said whether he intends to make foreign travel a regular part of his papal ministry.

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