An announcement from the Vatican has confirmed that Pope Francis played a significant role in the brokering of a prisoner-exchange deal with Cuba along with the promise of restoring diplomatic relations with the communist nation.

According to Aleteia, the Catholic Church has long wanted to see the kind of change in diplomatic relations with Cuba that President Barack Obama announced yesterday.

“The US bishops’ conference has said for many years that the path toward improving human rights and a path toward democracy in Cuba is better served by engagement than by isolation,” said Stephen Colecchi, director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishiops’ Office of International Justice and Peace. “So we do believe that it’s long overdue.”

Part of the deal was the release of three imprisoned Cuban spies who were caught in the U.S. in 1998. They were swapped for Rolando Sarraf Trujillo, a Cuban who had worked as an agent for American intelligence and had been in a Cuban prison for nearly 20 years.

Another prisoner, Alan P. Gross, was released from a Cuban prison on humanitarian grounds and was not technically a part of the official prisoner exchange. Gross, an American contractor, was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years for trying to deliver satellite telephone equipment that could cloak connections to the Internet.

The deal has been in the works for 18 months, with secret talks between Obama and Cuban president Raul Castro. These talks were encouraged by Pope Francis, who allowed representatives from the United States and Cuba to meet at the Vatican last October to discuss resuming diplomatic ties.

Apparently, Pope Francis has had a long-standing interest in restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, an interest that began during the visit of St. John Paul II to Cuba in 1998 when he urged: “Let Cuba open itself to the world, and let the world open itself to Cuba.”

Mario J. Paredes, presidential liaison for Roman Catholic Ministries at the American Bible Society in New York, organized pilgrims to Cuba for John Paul’s visit and said then-Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenes Aires wrote a book about the dialogue between John Paul and Fidel Castro and has been following the situation ever since.

“Since those days Pope Francis has closely followed the events in Cuba,” Paredes told Aleteia. “In April of this year, Pope Francis welcomed President Obama to the Vatican. Two of the topics on the agenda were the normalization of relations with Cuba and the release of Alan Gross. Dialogue between high level authorities in the Vatican, the United States and Cuba have continued since that time leading to today’s astounding development and announcements.”

The Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, who has a large contingent of Cuban-Americans in his diocese, issued a statement praising the deal and thanking Pope Francis for  “making possible what seems to be a real game changer in the historically strained relationship between Cuba and the United States. . . . Pope Francis did what popes are supposed to do: Build bridges and promote peace. He acted much like his namesake, Francis of Asissi, who during the fifth crusade, went to Egypt to meet with the Sultan al Kamil in the interest of peace.”

Havana, Cuba

Archbishop Wenski said the Church in Cuba has “always opposed the embargo, arguing that it was a blunt instrument that hurt the innocent more than the guilty; and the U.S. Church has supported the Catholic Church in Cuba.”

However, the U.S. bishops aren’t satisfied yet.

“There needs to be more freedom for Cubans to practice their religion and be able to study their faith outside of the confines of parish churches… and a greater opportunity for dissent, for the holding of diverse political opinions to be recognized so that people won’t risk incarceration or other maltreatment as the result of espousing political views that may contradict official government positions,” said Richard Coll, international policy advisor for Latin America in the US Bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace, in an interview.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Cuban community remains divided about the decision, with some considering the opening of diplomatic relations between the two countries as being akin to a nail in the coffin of their hopes of ever seeing a free and democratic Cuba.

“How about we ask the people who are persecuted in Cuba, the Ladies In White, the political prisoners. Ask them what they think about sanctions in Cuba. Every single one of them will tell you that they are in  support of sanctions in Cuba,” said Cuban-American Bobby Sanchez during a protest in Little Havana yesterday.

It will just make the dictatorship more powerful while the United States is gaining absolutely nothing. It’s just a very naive thing,” said Jose Sanchez Gronlier.

Others say it’s time for change in a 50 year-old policy that hasn’t brought about democracy anyway.

“If we don’t try and we keep going for another 50 years it will be the same. I think it’s time for a new era,” said Jose Irarragorri.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Pietro Paolin, Vatican Secretary of State, issued a statement in which he expressed his hope for improved relations between both countries and a better future for their citizens.

“The Holy See will continue to assure its support for initiatives which both nations will undertake to strengthen their bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens,” the Cardinal said.

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