Pope brings hope for Mexico & Cuba: Lombardi
(March 17.2012) The golden vein running through the forthcoming pastoral visit of
Pope Benedict XVIth to Mexico and Cuba is an overriding hope, says a top Vatican official,
commenting on the visit which begins next Friday, 23rd March, ending on
the 29th. Fr. Federico Lombardi, head of the Vatican Press Office, makes
this point in his Saturday editorial “Octava Dies” (eighth day). He admits that the
motives for the papal visit are manifold, such as the bicentenary of the independence
of the Latin-American peoples, the 20 years of diplomatic relations between the Holy
See and Mexico, and the 400th anniversary of the re-finding of the little
statue of the Blessed Virgin of charity of Cobre, patroness of Cuba. Yet at the heart
of this visit of the Pope as pastor of the universal church is to confirm his brothers
in the faith and to enliven the hope of the people – hope for the Mexicans to exploit
their enormous resources, but first by overcoming a host of problems, above all the
current wave of violence; and hope for Cuba as it emerges into the new epoch prophesied
by Pope John Paul II, bringing development, freedom and reconciliation. And for the
entire Latin-American Continent, the hope of the church to be in the frontline of
the forward march of the continent. 
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