• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Pope Francis walks with then-First Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez of Cuba after arriving in Holguin, Cuba, Sept. 21, 2015. New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan is set to meet with Diaz-Canel, who is now president, during a Feb. 7-12, 2020, trip to the island nation, which includes a visit with the cardinal of Havana and other Cuban prelates. (CNS photo/Andres Martinez Casares, Reuters)

Cardinal Dolan to meet with Cuban president, church leaders during visit

February 7, 2020
By Rhina Guidos
Filed Under: News, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

WASHINGTON (CNS) — New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan is set to meet with the president of the Republic of Cuba during a Feb. 7-12 trip to the island nation, which includes a visit with the cardinal of Havana and other Cuban prelates.

Cardinal Dolan flew to Havana early Feb. 7 with a small delegation from the New York area and is scheduled to celebrate Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the patroness of Cuba, during the visit.

Cardinal Dolan met Cuban President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez in 2018, the year he took over as head of Cuba from Raul Castro. Diaz-Canel, 59, visited New York later in the fall and spoke before the United Nations. He then met with Cardinal Dolan at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral during that visit and gave the prelate a present: a statue of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre.

Granma, the official government newspaper published by the Communist Party, published Sept. 27, 2018, an article about the meeting, calling the cardinal “charismatic” and saying that Diaz-Canel emphasized the bonds of “respect and stable and fluid communication between the Catholic Church and the government of Cuba,” during that visit.

Though Diaz-Canel is the president of Cuba, Raul Castro is the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, which is the most senior position in the communist state. Diaz-Canel, however, is expected to succeed him in 2021.

Following the 1959 Cuban revolution led by Raul Castro’s brother Fidel, the Cuban government, which declared itself officially atheistic, seized properties that had served as the social, educational and community centers of Catholic life, and a decades-long tension between the government and the Catholic Church ensued. The number of Catholic priests and other religious serving in Cuba became limited and, like the laity, greatly dwindled with the years.

Cuba’s Catholic Church, however, saw a slow ease of government restrictions following the 1998 visit of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, followed by Pope Francis in 2015.

The Vatican, with the help of Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana, who died in July 2019, played a major role in the rapprochement between the governments of Cuba and the U.S., and the two countries announced the reestablishment of relations in late 2014, which included the reopening of their respective embassies in Havana and Washington. The Trump administration, however, announced sanctions and a rollback of some of the policies made during that time.

The Catholic Church has constantly held that it’s better to engage Cuba instead of isolating it, and efforts — from the Vatican to the U.S. bishops — have emphasized diplomatic solutions.

Cardinal Dolan’s visit comes three days after President Donald Trump reiterated in his State of the Union address that his administration “reversed the failing policies of the previous administration on Cuba.”

Copyright ©2020 Catholic News Service / U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Rhina Guidos

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • 3 North Americans named to Vatican dicasteries for ecumenism, interreligious dialogue

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

  • Pope’s prayer intention for July: That the faithful might again learn how to discern

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

| Latest Local News |

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

| Latest World News |

80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons

Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope

Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal

Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says

Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • 80 years after ‘Trinity,’ Catholic-hosted gathering calls to abolish nuclear weapons
  • Gaza’s Christian community persevering amid hardship and hope
  • Nearly one in three conceptions in England and Wales end in abortion, government figures reveal
  • The virtue of patriotism
  • Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says
  • Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies
  • Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors’ new president ‘pioneer in his field,’ French lawyer says
  • Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter
  • Jesus did not ignore those in need, and neither should Christians, pope says

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en