Pope Benedict arrives in Cuba for visit

SANTIAGO, Cuba -- Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Cuba yesterday in the footsteps of his more famous predecessor, saying he holds great affection for Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits and heartfelt hopes for reconciliation.

President Raúl Castro warmly greeted the pope, who said he was coming as "a pilgrim of charity" as he arrived at the sweltering airport in Santiago, Cuba's second largest city.

The pontiff, who last week said Marxism "no longer responds to reality," gave a more gentle tweak to his hosts by expressing sympathy for all islanders, including prisoners.

"I carry in my heart the just aspirations and legitimate desires of all Cubans, wherever they may be," he said. "Those of the young and the elderly, of adolescents and children, of the sick and workers, of prisoners and their families, and of the poor and those in need."

Castro, in his own remarks, assured Benedict his country favors complete religious freedom and has good relations with all religious institutions.

"The Cuban Constitution consecrates and guarantees total religious freedom for all citizens," he said. He also criticized the 50-year-old U.S. economic embargo and defended the socialist ideal of providing for those less fortunate.

"We have confronted scarcity but have never failed in our duty to share with those who have less," Castro said.

The two men greeted each other with clasped hands and wide smiles after the pope arrived on a special Alitalia flight that flew Cuban and Vatican flags from the cockpit as it taxied along the airport tarmac.

Benedict's three-day stay in Cuba will inevitably spark comparisons to John Paul II's historic 1998 tour, when Fidel Castro traded his army fatigues for a suit and tie to greet the pope at Havana's airport and where John Paul uttered the now-famous words: "May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba."

In his remarks 14 years ago, John Paul singled out Cuban political prisoners jailed for their ideas, something Benedict did not do in yesterday's speech.

Unlike in Mexico, where multitudes showed up to greet the 84-year-old pope at the airport, normal citizens were kept away from Cuba's tightly controlled arrival ceremony, which took place on the tarmac in steamy weather, at 88 degrees Fahrenheit.