Castro invites pope to Cuba

Havana.– Cuban President Fidel Castro has invited Pope Benedict XVI to visit the Caribbean island, a source at the Cuban bishops' conference revealed .

Castro issued the invitation during a meeting on Friday with Cardinal Raffaele Martino, who spent two days in Cuba as part of a regional tour to present the Catholic Church's new 'Compendium' on social teaching .

News of the invitation follows last week's call by Benedict for the Communist nation to "open its heart" to God and the world. That call came in a message to the head of the Cuban bishops’ conference, which was celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first meeting of bishops allowed following the Cuban revolution. Story


In Vietnam, Christianity gains quietly
Roman Catholicism takes hold, especially among the young and urban.
By Simon Montlake Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

PHAT DIEM, VIETNAM – Last Christmas, the Rev. Peter Phuc fulfilled a lifelong dream: He went to Rome. With nine other priests he spent three weeks visiting churches and museums, though he didn't make an official visit to the Vatican, with which Vietnam has no diplomatic relations.

His eyes sparkle with the memory of his first foreign trip, which speaks to the lighter touch exerted by Vietnam's communist rulers on his faith. In 1980, when he was ordained at a closed-door ceremony, Roman Catholic priests ran the risk of being labeled subversives and sent to labor camps. None were permitted to travel overseas to study. the rest