VATICAN (CNS): Taking up the spirit of the recently inaugurated Holy Year 2025, the Cuban government announced the release of 553 people currently serving prison sentences.
During his January 19 Angelus addresss, Pope Francis called the development “a gesture of great hope that embodies one of the intentions of this Jubilee Year.”
In a statement January 14, the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that there would be a gradual release of the prisoners “in the spirit of the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025 declared by His Holiness” following a “thorough analysis” of the legal and humanitarian avenues to enact their release.
The statement did not specify who would be among the 553 prisoners designated for release.
That same day, the White House announced that Cuba would no longer be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and that it would eliminate some restrictions on Cuba.
The White House said the actions were steps “to support the Cuban people as part of an understanding with the Catholic Church under the leadership of Pope Francis and improve the livelihoods of Cubans.”
The White House statement said, “We take these steps in appreciation of the Catholic Church’s efforts to facilitate Cuba to take its own, constructive measures to restore liberty to its citizens and enable conditions that improve the livelihood of Cubans.”
Following the announcement, Seán Cardinal O’Malley, retired archbishop of Boston, said that for the last several years he had carried messages from Pope Francis to the presidents of the United States and Cuba “seeking the release of prisoners in Cuba and improved relationships between the two countries for the good of the Cuban people.”
In the spirit of the jubilee year, which invites all people to foster forgiveness, reconciliation and various expressions of compassion, “I commend and welcome the decisions of the government of the United States and the government of Cuba to take steps that for years have seemed impossible,” the cardinal said in a January 14 in a blog post.
The statement from Cuba’s foreign ministry made no mention of the United States’ measures, but noted discussions between Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, the Cuban foreign minister and Pope Francis on international issues “with emphasis on the unjust nature and nefarious effect of the US-Cuba policy.”
It added, “His Holiness has given unequivocal proofs of his empathy and love for the Cuban people.”
Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state was reported by Vatican Media as saying, “The news of the announced gradual release of 553 Cuban prisoners is a sign of great hope at the beginning of this Jubilee.”
Speaking on January 15, Cardinal Parolin, who is currently in France, said, “It is significant that Havana authorities linked this decision directly to Pope Francis’ appeal, who, in the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee, and then on several other occasions, called for acts of clemency, as has often occurred during the Holy Year.”
He noted that the year 2024 “ended with the commutation of dozens of death sentences to life imprisonment by the president of the United States, and with the news that Zimbabwe abolished the death penalty.”
Vatican Media reported him as saying, “We hope that 2025 will continue in this direction and that good news will multiply, especially with a truce for the many ongoing conflicts.”
In his bull of indiction, Spes Non Confundit [Hope does not disappoint], formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis called on governments to implement “forms of amnesty or pardon” as well as “programmes of reintegration” for prisoners.
After inaugurating the Holy Year 2025 at the Vatican, the pope opened a Holy Door at Rome’s Rebibbia prison on December 26 as a symbol of hope for all incarcerated people.
The last major event of the Holy Year will be the “Jubilee of Prisoners” scheduled to take place in December 2025, during which prisoners will make a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica and celebrate Mass with the pope.
