Cuban President Raul Castro Held Talks with Vatican Cardinal

During the official talks, Raul Castro and the Vatican Cardinal addressed
the state of bilateral relations between Cuba, the Holy See and the
Catholic Church in Cuba. They also exchanged on issues of multilateral
and international interest.

Present at the talks were Cuban Vice-presidents Carlos Lage and Esteban
Lazo; Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque; the head of the Communist
Party Central Committee Office for Religious Affairs, Caridad Diego;
deputy foreign minister Eumelio Caballero, and the Cuban ambassador to
the Vatican Raul Roa Kouri.

Cardinal Bertone was accompanied by the Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal
Jaime Ortega; Apostolic Nuncio in Cuba, Monsignor Luigi Bonazzi; the
Archbishop of Camaguey province and President of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, Monsignor Juan Garcia Rodriguez; the general secretary of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops and Auxiliary Bishop of Havana, Monsignor Juan de Dios Hernandez; The Bishop of Holguin province and member of the standing committee of the Cuban Conference of Catholic Bishops, Monsignor Emilio Aranguren; the advisor to the Apostolic Nunciature, Monsignor Juan Marie Speich, as well as Monsignors Nicolas Henry and Lech Piechota, from the Vatican’s State Secretariat.