Pope contemplating visit to Mexico, Cuba

(November 11, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI is likely to make a pastoral visit to Mexico and Cuba next year, the Holy See’s spokesman said on Thursday. Addressing journalists, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that the nuncios in Mexico and Cuba have been instructed to inform the highest civil and religious authorities that the Pope is examining concrete plans to visit the two Latin American countries in the spring of 2012, in response to invitations he has received. The Jesuit priest said plans will be finalized in the coming weeks, and the Holy Father will make his final decision. But he noted that "the time for a final decision on the programme and for the preparations is rather short." Father Lombardi said the timing of Pope Benedict’s visit would be related to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the image of Our Lady of Charity of Cobre, the patroness of Cuba. He said that the geographical closeness between Mexico and Cuba made it logical to combine the two nations into a single trip. This would be Pope Benedict’s first visit to Cuba and Mexico and his second to Latin America after that of Brazil in 2007. Blessed John Paul II visited Mexico five times, including the very first foreign trip of his papacy in 1979, the year after his election. The late Pope made a historic visit to Cuba in 1998, under the rule of Fidel Castro.