Castro wants Pope to visit Cuba: cardinal

ROME (Reuters) – Cuban leader Fidel Castro wants Pope
Benedict to make a visit to his country, an Italian cardinal
has said.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone of Genoa, who recently visited
Cuba and met Castro, told the Italian Catholic business
magazine “Il Consulente Re” that Castro told him he was
impressed by Benedict, who was elected last April.

“I recognised in him the face of an angel, the face of a
very good person. I would like to invite him to Cuba,” Bertone
quoted Castro as telling him.

According to the monthly magazine, published on Tuesday,
Castro asked Bertone to help arrange a visit. Benedict’s
predecessor John Paul visited communist Cuba in 1998.