The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (CC-PCC) and president of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel attended the ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic visit to the Island.
In the Aula Magna of the University of Havana (UH), Cardinal Beniamino Stella, envoy of Pope Francis, and Miriam Nicado García, rector of the University of Havana, also presided over the ceremony.
Bruno Rodríguez, member of the Political Bureau of the PCC and Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, member of the CC-PCC Secretariat and head of its Ideological Department were also present.
On January 25, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Communications, and the Grupo Empresarial Correos de Cuba carried out a commemorative postal cancellation for the trip of the supreme pontiff, which favorably marked the Caribbean country’s ties with the Catholic Church and the Holy See.
St. John Paul II was the first pope to visit Cuba, from January 21 to 25, 1998, at the invitation of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz (1926-2016), a historic leader of the Cuban Revolution.
