Pope meets Castros after mass on iconic Havana square

Pope Francis met on Sept.20 with Fidel and Raul Castro, the brothers who have ruled Cuba since its 1959 revolution, after celebrating an outdoor mass attended by hundreds of thousands.

In what is sure to become an emblematic moment of his tour of Cuba and the United States -- the Cold War enemies whose reconciliation he helped bring about -- the pope chatted with former leader Fidel Castro at his home in Havana, then held a closed-door meeting with current president Raul at government headquarters.
 
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope had a "very informal and friendly" conversation with 89-year-old Fidel that touched on various topics, including the environment.
 
Francis, 78, gave the former Cuban leader four books, including two on theology.
 
Castro reciprocated with a copy of Brazilian priest Frei Betto's book of interviews with him, "Fidel and Religion," which he signed, "With admiration and respect from the Cuban people."  

Video of the meeting aired on Cuban state TV showed the men sitting and chatting, the visibly voluble Castro clad in a tracksuit -- his trademark in retirement.
 
After years of hostility between the Church and Castro's communist regime -- which was officially atheist for more than three decades -- relations began to slowly improve in the 1980s, culminating in a historic visit to Cuba by pope John Paul II in 1998.
 
Francis, who arrived on Sept.19, is now the third pope to visit the island, after his predecessor Benedict XVI traveled there in 2012 -- a remarkable amount of papal attention for a country where only 10 percent of the population describe themselves as Catholic.
 
The pope later met with Castro's brother, President Raul Castro, 84, who...