Pope Francis could talk against Cuban embargo: Lombardi

The Vatican's spokesperson, Federico Lombardi, expressed that Pope Francis could condemn the U.S. blockade against Cuba during what remains of his visit to the island.

At a press conference, Lombardi carefully added that he can't say what the Pontiff will do, but pointed out that John Paul II and Benedict XVI spoke against the embargo.

"I'm no prophet to say what the Pope will say in the next few days and it is not my task to say what he could say. However, it is a tradition among the popes to condemn the blockade. This is something that his predecessors have done and something that the Church in Cuba has said. It is not something very new to see an attitude of the Church against the embargo," he said.

Lombardi stressed, on the other hand, the importance of Francis's labor in Cuba.

"Truly, the Pope has done a great service for the Church in Cuba, with many key events, not only the multitudinous Eucharistic celebrations, but also the meetings with bishops, with families and with the centrality of the Marian devotion," said Lombardi.

"It is a very strong Church experience, with all its different aspects. And I think that the Pope has truly contributed to the vitality, hope and confidence in Cuba, its future and union, and the reconciliation to the active presence for the common good. He and the Church are doing a great service to Cuba," expressed Lombardi.

Francis is housed in the Seminar St. Basil the Great, after a visit to the patron saint of Cuba, the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, in the city of Holguín.

For Cubans, the meeting of the Pope with the Virgin in her sanctuary, around which gathered hundreds of people, is of capital importance.

There, some 19 miles away from downtown Santiago de Cuba, Francis prayed and later lit a candle and placed an offering to the Virgin, a silver cup with flowers made of mosaics and ceramics.

The Pope later received from a group of children an image of the Virgin, which he will later take to the Cuban community in the United States.