Local Cubans welcome news that Pope Francis will visit their homeland before U.S. visit

Philadelphia's Cuban community welcomed news of Pope Francis' planned visit to their homeland on his way to the United States this fall, hoping it continues thawing relations between the two nations and helps the island's residents.

"It's extraordinary for a dynamic religious leader to be able to bridge the diplomatic Cold War that's been going on," said Richard Negrin, city managing director. Negrin's parents fled Cuba in 1961 and his father was later killed by Cuban terrorists after they mistook him for a communist sympathizer.

"It's a careful balance. We can't give away the store as we have these conversations, but I think it starts with an openness and willingness to talk that hopefully will lead to real substantial reforms over time," Negrin said. He specifically cited the need for a free and open Internet and press.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, confirmed Wednesday that the pope had accepted an invitation from Cuban officials and bishops.

Francis' visit follows the restoration of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations in December, largely facilitated by Francis and begun by his predecessors John Paul II, who visited Cuba in 1998, and Benedict XVI, who went in 2012.

President Obama, who this month removed Cuba from the U.S. list of nations harboring terrorists, praised news of the visit via Twitter.

Francis has not shied away from foreign policy issues. He is expected to address the United Nations and Congress during his September visit before he comes to Philadelphia. He also is expected to issue an encyclical on the environment before his arrival.

Organizers of the World Meeting of Families, the Catholic event expected to bring tens of thousands of people here from around the globe Sept. 21 to 25, said "a handful" of families from Cuba had expressed interest in attending.

Cuba, which was declared an atheist nation from 1962 to 1992, had a population that was 51 percent Catholic in 2012, according to a Pew research study. In 2013, Cuba officially recognized its citizens' right to practice any religion.

Guillermo Pernot, head chef for the Cuba Libre restaurants, based in Philadelphia, called the Vatican's involvement in U.S.-Cuba negotiations "major." Pernot is Argentine, like the pope, and his wife, Lucia, is from Cuba.

"I think him being a South American pope, he needed to do something drastic like this," Pernot said. "I think this will move things much faster than we expected. . . . This is the right time and Francis is the right person to achieve it."

Bonnie Camarda was 10 when she fled Cuba for Spain with her mother in 1960. Her father stayed behind. She moved to Philadelphia to attend the Wharton School in 1967. Now director of community partnerships for the Salvation Army of Greater Philadelphia, she said she was encouraged at what eased sanctions could do for Cuba's crumbling infrastructure.

"For someone in the younger generation, I think it's our time to try to learn how to get along," said Camarda, who is not Catholic. "I have been back to visit my father; he visits me.

"I think it is time to bridge the gap, and I think as a pope and as a spiritual leader of the world, [Francis] wants to be a peacemaker."

Camarda noted that for the older generation, who experienced more of the terror of the Castro regime after its takeover in 1959, the news is not as welcome.

Daisy Alvarez fled Cuba in 1965, when she was 18. Family members on both sides of the revolution were killed, priests and nuns were forced out of the country, and the press had been silenced. She escaped to Philadelphia, where she had an uncle.

"I came and I waited for Castro to die and he never did, so here I am," Alvarez said from her Northeast Philadelphia home.

Fifty years later, the Catholic wife and grandmother said she has mixed feelings about the pope's visit to Cuba and whether any good will come to Cuban citizens.

"My worry is this visit will give the world an impression of legitimacy of the Cuban government - that this dictatorship is blessed by the Vatican," she said.

"I don't think it will change anything immediately, but little by little, Cuba has to change to survive," she said. "It will take years; it's been a very oppressive regime."

Alvarez has never returned to Cuba, though she has family there. She doesn't discount going back one day.

"This is my second country, but there is that hole in my soul for Cuba, because I love that country and I will until I die," she said. "I want to see it free."

Mario Zacharjasz, a Roxborough-based architect and former chairman of the city's Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, was born in Cuba and escaped to the United States when he was 3.

"I don't see how things can get any worse. I only see them getting better - for interaction with businesses, for tourism, for faith," Zacharjasz said.

Zacharjasz, who is Jewish, has taken several humanitarian trips to Cuba. He called Francis a "lighting rod" who is showing he can cross religious and political boundaries.

"The man's doing things no pope has ever done, reaching out to people, being more public, and dealing with issues that are typically never dealt with," he said. "I think, for a pope, he's got a very young attitude."

jterruso@phillynews.com

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