Report: Pope May Visit Cuba In 2012
MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – Pope Benedict XVI may be preparing to make a trip to Cuba and Mexico as early as the Spring of 2012.
According to the Associated Press, despite the pontiff's age, he'll turn 85 in April, he has asked papal envoys in Cuba and Mexico to tell both political and religious authorities that the Vatican is "studying a concrete project, to visit the two countries.
Cuba was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1998 and the Vatican's number two person in 2008. The foreign minister of the Vatican came to the communist country in 2010.
Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said that if Pope Benedict XVI visited the communist country, it would offer "great encouragement" to the island's faithful, according to the Associated Press.
Rev. Lombardi said the visit would be especially meaningful to the Catholic community in Cuba because they are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the image of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, which is Cuba's patron saint.
According to the AP, no other foreign trips in 2012 are being studied at this time.
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