HAVANA -- (EFE) -- The Vatican's foreign affairs secretary, Monsignor Jean-Louis Tauran, confirmed Tuesday that Pope John Paul II has been invited to visit Cuba and that the appropriate arrangements will be made shortly.
In a brief statement read to the press at the end of his four-day visit to the island, Tauran said that ``President Fidel Castro has confirmed to me that the invitation extended to the pope to visit Cuba remains in full effect.''
Tauran and Castro met Monday night.
The Pope was invited to Cuba in 1990, but for reasons that never became clear, a date was not set, and the trip did not take place.
``The much-expected visit by the pope to Cuba represents . . . a new starting point on the road to normalization of relations between the church and the state,'' Tauran said.
Copyright © 1996 The Miami Herald