VATICAN CITY, April 18 2015 – The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis is considering visiting Cuba during a planned trip to the United States in September later this year.
On Friday, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement the Pope was considering “carrying a leg to Cuba on the occasion of his upcoming visit to the United States” between September 22 and 27.
The 78-year-old Roman Catholic Church leader had previously announced that he would visit Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay in the month of July.
Although the Pope visited Brazil in 2013, he has not been to a Latin American nation since.
Late last year, the Argentine-born Pope said he would go to the US to take part in a Catholic Church congress in the state of Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia city.
During his tour of the US, he is expected to visit five cities. The locations have not yet been confirmed.
The Pope’s visit to Cuba during his tour of the US is of significance as Washington and Havana have been attempting to restore diplomatic relations after ties were cut in 1961 following the Cuban revolution.
The Pope has written letters to the US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro, urging both sides to settle outstanding issues and pave the way for a deal to restore ties.
The announcement of his trip to Cuba comes days after Obama and Castro met in Panama City on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas, the first meeting between the two nations in decades. Washington also removed Cuba from the list of states supporting terrorism.
The visit to Cuba will be the third time a Pope makes a trip to the country.
