In a sign of improving relations with the Church, Cuban President Raul Castro attended the beatification of 19th century "father of the poor" Jose Ollalo on Saturday.
BBC News reports the first beatification ceremony in Cuba has been held in front of thousands of Catholics and President Raul Castro.
It was the final step before sainthood for 19th century friar, Jose Olallo, known as the "poor people's priest".
The ceremony in Camaguey was broadcast on state television.
The unannounced arrival of Mr Castro was greeted with applause, a sign of the growing rapprochement between the communist state and the Church.
Vatican representative, Cardinal Jose Saraiva from Portugal, presided over a Mass lasting almost three hours at the Church of the Virgin of Charity.
Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega, papal nuncio Luigi Bonazzi, Camaguey Archbishop Juan Garcia, and about 20 Cuban and foreign bishops were also present.
Doves were released and bells rung as Friar Olallo's remains, in a gold coloured urn, were taken in a procession through the city.
Friar Olallo, a member of the Hospitallier Order of Saint John of God, helped the sick and wounded during Cuba's first war of independence (1868-1878) against Spain.
He defied Spanish orders barring members of religious orders from Cuba, and was the sole Hospitallier on the island at the time.
While the ceremony was the first to be held in Cuba, Friar Olallo was not the first Cuban to be beatified. Cuban born Fray Jose Lopez Piteira was beatified in 2007, but the ceremony took place in Spain where he died during the Spanish civil war.
It is second time in a week Mr Castro has been to a church. On Thursday he accompanied the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to the recently opened Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Havana, the BBC says.
"In the face of a materialist culture that we see imposing itself everywhere and that pushes aside the weak and the poor, we learn from Olallo the virtues of the wisdom of God and how to love thy neighbor universally," said Cardinal Saraiva said according to a Reuters report.
The International Herald Tribune noted the beatification and Raul Castro's attendance could help further improve the once icy relationship between the Church and Cuba's communist government.
The ceremony was widely announced in state controlled news media, unusual in a country where official news outlets often ignore religious matters, the paper said.
Raul Castro's first diplomatic meeting as head of state was with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the pope's secretary of state whose previously scheduled visit to the island coincided with Fidel's transferal of power.
SOURCE
Cuban landmark for Catholic friar (BBC News, 29/11/08)
Castro attends Cuba's first Catholic beatification (Reuters, 29/11/08)
Raul Castro attends first beatification in Cuba (International Herald Tribune, 29/11/08)
LINKS
Raul Castro (Wikipedia)