The Caribbean island is the last Latin American nation which the Holy Father has not yet visited. The full schedule for the trip is expected to be published this week, but the Vatican Television Center gave the details in a statement outlining its plans for coverage. The Pontiff will arrive in Havana on January 21 and will celebrate Mass in the city of Santa Clara and meet with Castro the next day. He will then say Mass in Camaguey on January 23 and in Santiago de Cuba on January 24. The trips ends on Sunday, January 25 with a Mass in Havana which Castro will attend.
Communist-Catholic relations have been strained since Castro's 1959 revolution, shortly after which the island was declared a socialist state, some 350 Catholic schools were nationalized, more than 100 priests expelled, and freedom of worship and religious instruction limited. Religious freedoms have expanded since Castro met with the Holy Father at a World Food Summit in Rome last year.