Castro asks pope to visit Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba (UPI) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro has invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit the communist island, the Italian news agency ANSA reports.

Castro extended the invitation to the pope via Cardinal Raffaele Martino, who was visiting Cuba as an official representative of the Catholic Church.

The invitation follows the popes recent suggestion for Cuba to 'open its heart' to God and the rest of the world.

The late Pope John Paul II made the first papal visit to Cuba in 1998, around the same time that Castro granted some rights to the Catholic Church in Cuba, ANSA noted, though not many.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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I wish the Pope would make some kind of concrete statement denouncing Cuba, but I'm not holding my breath.