on Tuesday, EL COBRE, Cuba (Reuters) – Pope Benedict XVI will visit the sanctuary of El Cobre, a small town near Santiago de Cuba that is home to the Virgen de la Caridad, a national symbol that has given strength to the Church to bid on a greater role in the middle of the transformations facing the Socialist nation.

The Holy Father asked Cubans to build a new society “open and fair” during its multitudinous mass on Monday in Santiago, first stop of a three day trip that many expect will generate greater openness of the Government to deal with sensitive political freedoms and human rights issues.

“The wake of so many pilgrims, also I would like to go to the copper to prostrate at the feet of the mother of God (and) ask her intercession for the destinations of this beloved nation guided by the paths of Justice, peace, freedom and reconciliation”, said upon his arrival in the country after visiting Mexico.

Last year, the procession of a replica of the image throughout the island revived the faith in a country that was officially atheist until 1992 and led to the visit of the Pope 14 years before John Paul II smoothed over the hostile relationship which existed between the Church and the Government since the triumph of the revolution in 1959.

Pilgrimage to celebrate the anniversary number 400 of his finding in the sea by fishermen attracted hundreds of thousands devotees both Catholic and santeros, a spirituality of African roots which known as Ochun, Goddess of love.

But was also a sign of the growing influence of the Church in Cuba, that since the visit of the Polish Pope has become the most influential institution after the Communist – only legal in the country – and main interlocutor of the Government on sensitive issues such as the dissident groups.

Essential Church

The Pope will make a private visit in the morning after staying in a residence near the sanctuary and will later depart to Havana to meet with President Raul Castro.

In addition, the head of the Vatican State could find with Fidel Castro, leader of the revolution, and his Venezuelan ally Hugo Chavez, who is in Cuba for dealing with radiotherapy the cancer that was diagnosed last year.

, However, is not expected to give audience to opposition groups, who complain that the authorities will show his Holiness a skewed reality, while the Government accuse them of being in the pay of the United States to destabilize the country.

The Bishop of Rome moderated his speech after the front comments that preceded his arrival on the failure of communism in Cuba, but maintained his view that the country needs new ways and models to advance and that the Church is ready to help if they fail.

“there are many aspects which can and must move forward, especially to the essential contribution that the religion is called to play in the public sphere of society”, said the Pope, who has also criticised the 50 years of economic embargo affecting Cuba by United States.

Since that he assumed officially the Presidency in 2008 following the resignation of his brother for health reasons, Raúl Castro has launched reforms to revive the economy without giving up the Marxist ideology, raising expectations and fears in a country accustomed for decades to the centralism of Soviet-style.

More than religion

La Virgen de la Caridad is an icon that transcends religion: revered by Cuban nationalists first, image accompanied many of the rebels who in the 1950s rose to the Sierra Maestra mountains led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara to face and overthrow the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

The mother of Fidel and Raúl, the brothers who have directed the country’s fate for more than five decades, left a few small statuettes of gold of their children to ask the charity for the victory of the rebels.

Ernest Hemingway donated the Virgin Medal of the Nobel Prize for literature, who won in 1954, although it is no longer on display since that “disappear” a couple of days in 1986.

In the modest sanctuary of El Cobre, the Pope will be witness of national reverence to this advocation of the Virgin, to which thousands of Cubans come each year to ask for favors of all kinds, from diseases to obtain a visa to travel abroad, or thank your intercession in difficult times.

“Thank you dear mother (Madonna) for everything you’ve given me.” “Please, help me to soon be with the family”, wrote a former captain of the army, while he deposited his precious degrees in the chapel of the offerings the day before the papal visit.

Trophies, baseball, medals, carnival masks, wheelchairs, Tufts of hair and balls up beer cans adorn the altar of the small effigy.

“This is a special devotion, spiritualism and from Santeria practice.” “And is a way to lose the fear of these religious practices”, told Reuters the priest of the shrine, Jorge Palma, on a country where proliferated the religious syncretism after years of anti-clericalism.

(Enrique Andrés pretzel additional report.) (Edited by Silene Ramírez)