In message, pope asks Cuban Catholics to remember God is with them

Published: 2006-02-15

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI asked Catholics in Cuba to remember that even in the midst of difficulty, God is always with them and wants them to share his love with all their compatriots. "Yes, he walks with everyone who lives in the country -- believers and nonbelievers, those close and those far off, those who sow and those who scatter -- because all are called to the banquet of life that the Father gives us," the pope said. In a message to a Feb. 15 conference in Havana to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first national meeting of Catholics in Cuba allowed after President Fidel Castro took power, the pope said a review of the past two decades must focus on identifying the presence and action of God. Time and history are marked by the presence of God, he said, and even in the midst of difficulty Christians are called to focus on the ways in which God has encouraged and strengthened them.

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