As did John Paul II six years ago in the course of his historic pilgrimage to Cuba, the ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I has appealed for the end of the American embargo on the island of Castro, which has been in force for over 40 years. During his five-day visit, Patriarch Bartholomew met President Castro on several occasions. Echoing the words of the Pope in 1998 appealing “to the world to open itself up to Cuba and to Cuba to open itself up to the world”, the Orthodox Patriarch asked Cuba to open its doors to freedom also “inside” the country. In the course of a solemn ceremony of consecration in the cathedral of St. Nicholas in Havana (a service that lasted five hours), Bartholomew said that “economic embargoes imposed on countries and peoples are a mistake and that the problems between peoples and countries, as between individuals, must be resolved through dialogue”. The Patriarch also spoke of the freedom of “religious expression” as “a fundamental human right”. The cathedral of St. Nicholas is the leading place of Orthodox worship on the island and represents a community of some 3,000 faithful of Orthodox confession, mainly of Slav, Russian and Ukrainian origin. In the course of his visit to Cuba, the Patriarch also met Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
