The White House's announcement of rapprochement with Cuba was nearly eclipsed last week after it was revealed that Pope Francis was behind the movement.
Francis is not the first pope to plead with American presidents and the Cuban tyrant, Fidel Castro, to end the embargo and work together toward democratic progress. Catholic emissaries from both the Vatican and the U.S. have met with Cuban priests, visited the island, and spoken to the Castro brothers for decades - fifty years of slow, behind-the-scenes engagement leading up to President Obama's controversial announcement last week.
Along with the pope, the U.S. bishops welcome the prospect of normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba. For decades, they too have held that a policy of engagement would provide more opportunity to restore human rights on the island and facilitate democratic reforms.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski tells The Florida Catholic democratic improvements are usually the result of dialogue and conversation rather than a pre-condition of it.
Still, no one - not even the bishops - can say whether freedom of speech, economic improvements and educational opportunities are actually imminent, and many familiar with the state of the island believe such changes are a long way off.
The American Spectator's Jordan Allott asked Cuban dissident Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez what message he has for Americans about the release of Alan Gross and the United States' intention to normalize relations with Cuba.
"My message is that this move will give very little benefit to the Cuban people - this has been a move by the regime to gain time," he said. "For there to be real change in Cuba, there must be respect for freedom of expression and opinion, religion, movement... and there have been no such changes."
Pope Francis has believed in the value of ending Cuba's isolation from the U.S. since before he became an archbishop. In 1998, shortly after Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Cuba, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Francis' birth name) wrote a booklet called "Dialogues between John Paul II and Fidel Castro."
In it, Bergoglio does not gloss over the problems caused by Castro's socialist and atheist state, but he sets the stage for "listening" - a favorite theme of the pope - as a strategy and solution.
In global politics since then, the pope has tried to make peace and open doors for dialogue between unlikely parties who are sometimes openly hostile to one another or to the Vatican. When flying over Chinese airspace on a papal trip earlier this year, Francis took the opportunity to send a telegram offering his goodwill to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has been diplomatically estranged from the Holy See.
The idea is that reconciliation starts with conversation. And conversation starts with a willingness to engage. It is clear that the Roman Catholic Church and the United States have that willingness. But the Cuban dictatorship's intentions are much less obvious.
That's precisely why the U.S. concessions are difficult for some Cuban-Americans to swallow.
"I am just glad my parents...aren't alive to feel the pain, disappointment, and betrayal of today," said Hope Sadowski of the Archdiocese of Miami, who made it out of Cuba alone at age 14, in an interview with The Florida Catholic.
Sadowski, like other Cuban-American Catholics who escaped the Castro regime or who spent years as political prisoners, is skeptical that change in Cuba is possible, regardless of U.S. engagement. But she also said the embargo hasn't worked and noted that at least now Cuba "won't be able to use it as an excuse for the miserable life" that its people endure.
It's a commonly heard mix of frustration and possibility, as the U.S. steps with Cuba into its uncertain future.
Kathryn Elliott covers the Vatican, Pope Francis and all things related to the Catholic Church for HNGN. She is a producer for EWTN News Nightly, an international cable news show airing weeknights at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST on the Global Catholic Television Network. Kathryn has reported for the National Catholic Register, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Catholic Spirit, The Minnesota Daily and The Word Among Us Magazine. She has a BA in professional journalism from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Kathryn lives in Washington, D.C. Follow her on Twitter at @kmelliott90.
