Pope Francis will receive Cuban President Raúl Castro at the Vatican

Pope Francis will receive Cuban President Raúl Castro at the Vatican, the spokesman of the Holy See pointed out on May 5.

The Pope will receive Raúl on Sunday morning and the interview will be “strictly private,” specified Federico Lombardi in a communiqué, the www.cubasi.cu Web site reported on Wednesday.

The Vatican had announced in mid-April that the Argentinean Pope will make a stage in Cuba in September, before traveling to the United States.

This is the first trip to Cuba of the Pontiff, who has played an important role in the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, now taking steps to improve relations after decades of conflict.

The Cuban president received in Havana on Monday, April 27, the prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in the Vatican, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, with whom he spoke about the upcoming visit of Pope Francis to Cuba.

Stella, who was papal nuncio in Havana between 1993 and 1999, and Raul, held a “cordial meeting” in which “they discussed issues of mutual interest, particularly the upcoming visit to Cuba of Pope Francis,” according to an official communiqué.