Vatican City/Pope Leo XIV received the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, in an audience at the Vatican this Saturday, as confirmed by the Holy See, amid tensions between the Island and the United States.
The audience between the American pontiff and the minister has been confirmed in the Vatican daily bulletin, in which Rodríguez appears mentioned as a “special envoy” of the president of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Rodríguez later confirmed the meeting on his profile on the social network X, in a message with two photographs with the pope.
“I deeply thank His Holiness Leo XIV for the honor of having received me in Audience as Special Envoy of the President of the Republic of Cuba,” he wrote, without providing other details.
The meeting takes place in the midst of tensions between Havana and Washington. US President Donald Trump has assured that his country could opt for “a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
The Vatican also received two American diplomats: the chargé d’affaires in Havana, Mike Hammer, and the ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burh.
In this sense, a week ago the Vatican also received two American diplomats: the chargé d’affaires in Havana, Mike Hammer, and the ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burh.
Specifically, the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher, received them to talk about the situation in Cuba.
Hammer also met last Wednesday in Rome with a group of Cuban exiles and, in statements to EFE, he assured that he has held talks at the Vatican to “see what can be done to try to ensure that change can be achieved peacefully” in Cuba.
Pope Leo XIV himself has recently asked Washington and Havana for “sincere and effective dialogue to avoid violence and any action that could increase the suffering of the Cuban people.”
These days he has also received in audience the bishop of Guantánamo and Baracoa, Monsignor Silvano Pedroso Montalvo, while the rest of the prelates who reside on the island have not been able to travel to Rome for the traditional ‘ad limina’ visit, which they must complete every five years, due to the lack of fuel.
