Vatican City, Oct 15 (EFE).- Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls will travel to Cuba this week to prepare for Pope John Paul II's visit to the island in January 1998.
The pope's visit, which will take place Jan. 21-25, will take him to five cities, including Havana and Santiago de Cuba, Cuban ecclesiastical sources announced.
Navarro's trip reveals the importance of the pope's visit to Cuba, the only Latin American country that the pope has not visited.
In November, Jesuit Roberto Tucci, who organizes the pope's trips, will return to Cuba to finalize the details of the January visit.
So far, more than 2,000 journalists have been assigned to cover the event.
Last Sunday, Cuban Archbishop Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino was not permitted to celebrate an open-air Mass in the small, agricultural province of Bejugal, 30 kilometers from the capital.
In his homily, the archbishop of Havana denounced the oppression under which Cuba's Roman Catholics continue to live. EFE