Pope Francis and the Vatican played key roles in US-Cuba thaw, leaders reveal

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/17/us-cuba-pope-franicis-key-roles

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Pope Francis and Vatican diplomats played key roles in the re-opening of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba and the release of the imprisoned American, Alan Gross, according to the leaders of the two countries and a Vatican statement issued on Wednesday.

Pope Francis sent letters to Barack Obama and the Cuban president Raul Castro last summer. Both leaders acknowledged the importance of his appeal in their statements announcing the breakthrough.

The Vatican said the pope’s letters called on the two countries “to resolve humanitarian questions of common interest, including the situation of certain prisoners, in order to initiate a new phase in relations”.

The Vatican also hosted delegations from the two countries at what were said to have been the talks at which the breakthrough was made. Kenneth Hackett, the US ambassador to the Holy See, said a senior Vatican official had “played an important part in this historic moment by meeting US and Cuban delegations in October to help bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion.”

The re-establishment of normal relations between the two countries has been a cause dear to the hearts of successive popes, but the issue took on an even greater importance last year following the election last year of the first Latin American leader of the Catholic church.

A senior US official told Reuters news agency: “The support of Pope Francis and the support of the Vatican was important to us.”

President Obama discussed Cuba with the pope during his visit to the Vatican in March, and continued to work with the Holy See thereafter.

Sources in Rome and Washington said the archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, had played a key role in brokering a deal. He, too, was in Rome in October, and held a meeting with the pope on October 3, although it was not immediately clear whether he was the official referred to by Ambassador Hackett.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, met with his Vatican counterpart on Monday. But the official version of the talks, issued by the Vatican, said that they had concentrated on efforts to close the American detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Diplomats in Rome were told that the issue of bilateral relations between Cuba had arisen, but that it was a minor part of Kerry’s discussions with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state. Kerry visited Rome on a European tour that was mainly about reviving peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

The pope is said by sources close to the Vatican to hold Cardinal Ortega in high regard. Francis has had two meetings this year with the Cuban prelate, the first being April 5.

But most intriguing is a special appointment he conferred on the archbishop last summer. According to both Obama and Castro, Canada hosted talks between envoys of their two countries, which led up to Wednesday’s announcement. On 12 July, Ortega was named as the pope’s special envoy to the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the foundation of the first Roman Catholic parish in the Americas north of Mexico – that of Notre-Dame de Québec.