There were more arrests in Cuba in the last 24 hours:
Cuban authorities prevented leading dissidents from meeting Pope Francis in Havana on Sunday, in a sign of the Communist regime’s rigid intolerance of political opposition.Two well-known dissidents, Marta Beatriz Roque and Miriam Leiva, had been invited by the Vatican to attend a vespers service led by the Pope’s in Havana’s historic baroque cathedral.But they said they were detained by security agents and barred from attending the event."They told me that I didn't have a credential and that I couldn't go to the Pope’s event that was taking place there in the plaza of the Cathedral," Ms Roque said.She said that she and Ms Leiva had also been invited by the Vatican to meet Pope Francis at the residence of the Holy See’s ambassador to Cuba shortly after the pontiff's arrival on Saturday, but that they were detained on that occasion as well.The head of an opposition group called the Ladies in White said that 22 of the 24 members of the group who had hoped to attend a Mass celebrated by the Pope were prevented from doing so by Cuban security officials.There had been intense speculation about whether the Pope would risk incurring the displeasure of his host, President Raul Castro, by meeting political opponents of the Communist regime.
I guess that the Pope does not want to make the Castro brothers angry. Maybe Pope Francis does not want the brothers to retaliate and make life more difficult for Cuban priests.
At the same time, the Vatican is okay, or at least tolerant, with the welcoming committee that President Obama has prepared for him:
b) the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Bishop Gene Robinson; and,
c) Sister Simone Campbell, an activist nun who leads a group criticized by the Vatican for its silence on abortion and euthanasia.
This is an outrage and I'm not talking about the guests' lifestyle.
It's an outrage for Pope Francis to go to Cuba and the U.S. and greet 3 activists who despise the Catholic Church's teachings but will not meet with ladies who go to mass every Sunday and pray constantly for the release of their sons and husbands, political prisoners in the island.
Sorry, but it makes no sense. I continue to be very disappointed with Pope Francis, a good man who is either too weak to stand up to despots or does not appreciate how much he's offending Cubans like me when he does a mass with a picture of Che in the background.
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