Pope welcomes Cuba's prisoner release following talks with Vatican as part of long-standing dialogue
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Pope Francis on Sunday hailed the release of Cuban prisoners as a “gesture of great hope” that he prayed would be undertaken elsewhere, as he welcomed an agreement the Vatican helped facilitate as part of a three-way dialogue with Washington and Havana that dates back to the Cuban missile crisis.
Cuba said this week that it was releasing 553 prisoners “in the spirit of" Francis' 2025 Holy Year and had informed the pope of its decision ahead of time. The move came a day after the Biden administration announced its intention to lift the U.S. designation of the island nation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The Jubilee is a once-every-quarter century event that primarily is aimed at encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome. But Francis and popes before him have also used Holy Years as an occasion to ask governments to make gestures of clemency for prisoners, to whom Francis has long dedicated much of his priestly ministry.
Francis, history's first Latin American pope, referred to the Cuban release during his weekly Sunday blessing. “It is a gesture of great hope that concretises one of the intentions of this Jubilee year,” he said. “I hope that in the months to come, initiatives of this kind will continue to be undertaken in the different parts of the world, infusing confidence in the journey of individuals and peoples.”.
