Cubans Get New Holiday Thanks to Pope
HAVANA TIMES, March 31 — Fresh from a three-day work holiday for Pope Benedict XVI’s March 26-28 visit to Cuba, the government has announced a new holiday, Good Friday, based on a request from the Pontiff to President Raul Castro.
With Easter week previously not observed by the Cuban State, next week, Friday April 6, will be the first adherence of the new holiday, noted the official Cuban press on Saturday.
Christmas Day was also reinstated as a national holiday by then President Fidel Castro when Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998.
No mention was made if leaders of other widely practiced religions, such as the Afro-Cuban Santería, will also be able to propose important dates on their calendar to be observed as national holidays.
Cuba making Good Friday is good news for the world socialist movement. It may help repair the enormous damage that Marxian anti-religious sentiment, and its persecution of religious organizations and individuals has done.
Spiritual conscience is a private matter. Freedom of spiritual conscience is one of the great achievements of the anti-feudal revolution during the past several centuries. For Marxists to have made socialism synonymous with anti-spiritualism has helped discredit socialism. Nor has it helped the advance of socialism in any way.
This news info, is quite up to date and a tribute to your website. It’s just my opinion but if I want news up front
concerning Cuba, I come here first. Regarding Good Friday designated a Holiday, I think this is incredible
and a tremendous indication that change is about to come. There isn’t any other country I know who has done this and as a Christian, Good Friday is the second most important Holy Day, in the calendar. A so called
“God-less” society is leading the way.