They say that, like Pope John Paul II, Leo XIV speaks the truth to those in power.

14ymedio, Frank Calzón, Miami, 12 May 2025 — In a press release distributed by the Cuban Foreign Ministry, President Miguel Diaz-Canel congratulated Pope Leo XIV, reminding him that diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Holy See were established 90 years ago. The new pope, who once presided over the Pontifical Commission on Latin America, was already aware of this fact.
When Diaz-Canel sent the message, he had already read the State Security report on the visits to the island in 2008 and 2011 by the then “Father Robert,” and he may have carefully studied the information in the official files about his meetings with young Catholic activists, including Harold Cepero—the former seminarian murdered in 2012 along with Oswaldo Payá on a highway en route to Santiago de Cuba. There is a photo of the future pope with Harold and other young Cuban Catholics in front of Havana Cathedral.
They say that like Pope Francis, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost developed a special interest in the poor, the needy and migrants.
The pontiff elected a few days ago by 133 cardinals was born in the United States, but has been a Peruvian citizen for over 40 years, and at the time of the Vatican conclave, he was the cardinal of Peru. It is said that, like Pope Francis, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost developed a special interest in the poor, the needy, and migrants. Also, like Pope John Paul II, he speaks the truth to those in power.
The new pope was born in 1955, when Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, had already suffered persecution from the Nazis and the Polish communist regime. By the time Leo XIV took the chair of St. Peter, Iran was close to being able to manufacture atomic bombs, Russia’s war against Ukraine continued, as did the repression of Catholics in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and at the hands of Arab extremists in Africa. A bishop in China is under house arrest, and according to the agreement with the Vatican, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has the power to propose candidates for bishops in its country, although in fact it has actually granted itself the power to appoint them.
The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has the power to propose candidates for bishops in its country, although in reality it has given itself the power to appoint them.
In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega has expelled priests and nuns. And in Cuba, despite his good intentions and Pope John Paul’s public protests, the Office of Religion and Cults, which oversees the island’s churches, continues to operate. It is to this office, which is not a government department but rather a department of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, that priests must go to request permission to travel abroad, buy bricks and cement to repair the roof of the parish church, or organize a religious procession in the town park.
In this international context and given his biography, it should come as no surprise that Leo XIV is aware of Harold Cepero’s death and is also addressing President Diaz-Canel regarding the case of José Daniel Ferrer, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, who was arbitrarily and in poor health sent back to political prison in Santiago de Cuba. Let us hope so.
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