(The Christian Science Monitor) It was the longest, and most anticipated, journey of his papacy so far.
Nine months after secretly helping to broker the historic rapprochement between Washington and Havana, Pope Francis was in Cuba for a four-day visit preceding his five-day tour of the United States, which began today.
Expectations were running high for this leg of the trip, as Cubans looked to the first pope from the Americas to persuade President Raul Castro to bring their country out of its long isolation—and end the decades of harassment, persecution, and imprisonment that dissidents have suffered under the Castro regime.
