Pope plans to visit Cuba, Mexico

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI plans to travel to Cuba and Mexico before Easter next year, saying he hopes his visit will strengthen the faith and encourage Catholics there to seek justice and hope.

Benedict confirmed his travel plans Monday during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica honoring Mexico’s patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The late Pope John Paul II made historic trips to both Cuba and Mexico. He became the first pope to visit Mexico when he landed in 1979 on his first foreign trip, and he made a groundbreaking tour of communist Cuba in 1998.

Benedict has visited Latin America once before – Brazil in 2007 – but the 84-year-old has focused his travel mostly in Europe, to both spare him from long trips and to focus his efforts on a continent where Christianity has fallen by the wayside.

His decision to return to Latin America shows the Vatican’s concern about cementing the faith in a region that claims about half of the world’s Catholics but where evangelical Pentecostal movements are making major inroads.

In his homily, Benedict said it was his responsibility as pope to help confirm the faith in such an important Catholic stronghold.