GENEVA (RNS) The World Council of Churches says the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba violates religious freedom by preventing a group of Latin American churches from hosting a summit on the island nation. By Peter Kenny.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI called for more religious freedom for the Catholic Church on his last day in communist Cuba. Around 300,000 people turned up for a papal Mass in Revolution Square in Havana, just before an unscheduled but much-anticipated meeting with Fidel Castro. By Alessandro Speciale.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) On his arrival in Cuba, Pope Benedict XVI renewed the Catholic church's pledge to work with the Communist government in order to help the island look at the future, and criticized the "ambition and selfishness" which engendered the global economic crisis. By Alessandro Speciale.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday (March 23) urged Cuba's communist government to look for ``new models'' beyond its ``Marxist ideology,'' since Marxism ``no longer responds to reality.'' By Alessandro Speciale.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The 13 Cubans who occupied a church in Central Havana left after being assured they wouldn't be detained by police, and the incident shows the challenges that Pope Benedict XVI will find in Cuba this weekend. By Alessandro Speciale.

WASHINGTON (RNS) The Jewish community is trying to enlist the pope to intercede on behalf of Alan Gross, the Maryland Jewish man who has been in a Cuban jail for more than two years, on his upcoming trip to the island nation. By Lauren Markoe.