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Pope urged to read Fidel Castro book of spirituality

Monday, 21 September 2015 2:26 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 September 2015 2:25 AM ]

Photo released by Cuban website Cubadebate.cu of Cuban former president Fidel Castro (R) shaking hands with Pope Francis in Havana on September 20, 2015. (AFP)

The Cuban revolutionary leader and former president Fidel Castro has given his book on spirituality to Pope Francis during a meeting amid Pope’s visit to the Caribbean country.

In an “intimate and familial” encounter at Castro's residence in the Cuban capital Havana, the two exchanged views on various topics, including religion, environment, and world affairs, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Sunday.

During the 40-minute meeting, Castro gave Pope a copy of his book titled Fidel and Religion first published in 1985, containing interviews with a Brazilian priest and writer that lifted the taboo of speaking about religion in Cuba.

The Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church gave 89-year-old Castro a number of his official papal books as well as two books on spirituality and a book and CD on the writings of Father Armando Llorente, a Jesuit priest who was Castro’s teacher in high school more than 70 years ago.

During a 2012 visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Cuba, Castro peppered the German theologian with questions, whereas his meeting with the incumbent Pope was “very familiar, fraternal and friendly” and more of a conversation, Lombardi further said, adding that Castro's wife and several of his children and grandchildren were present.

*General view of Havana's Revolution Plaza* *is seen as Pope Francis gives the first mass of his visit to Cuba, on September 20, 2015. (AFP)*

Before the meeting, Pope, among thousands of Cubans in Havana's iconic Revolution Plaza, urged people to serve one another.

“Service is never ideological for we do not serve ideas, we serve people,” he said at the Mass, attended by President Raul Castro, and top members of the government.