Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Havana´s Archbishop, forwarded a message from the Cuban people to Pope Francis, minutes after His Holiness officiated Mass at the Havana’s Revolution Square.
On behalf of the Cuban people, believers or not, Cardinal Ortega thanked the Pope for his visit, and for ¨having sowed, with your pontificate, good and needed concerns in our consciences, so numb and used to mediocrity¨
He also acknowledged the new airs of hope that arise from the Pope´s ministry, ¨whose renovating freshness are felt especially by the poor in our countryside and cities, in our social, economic and political peripheries of all the peoples of the world¨
Ortega spoke of the role played by the Pope in the process of normalization of relations between Cuba and the US that, ¨will benefit our people so much¨
The Havana Archbishop promise the Pope Cubans will always pray to the Cuban Patroness Our Lady of the Charity to help him on his difficult task of sowing love and peace in a world divided by wars and hatred.
After the salutation, Francis gave Ortega a chalice as a present