The Reuters website reports that Cuba today (March 31, 2012) declared next week's Good Friday as a holiday in recognition of a request by Pope Benedict XVI and his "transcendental visit" to the island this week.
The communist government will decide later whether to make Good Friday -- the day Christians commemorate Christ's death on the cross -- a permanent holiday, the state media said. This year, it will be celebrated on April 6.
Benedict requested the holiday -- part of Easter celebrations -- in a meeting last Tuesday in Havana with President Raul Castro, the Vatican said.
After Cuba's 1959 revolution, then leader Fidel Castro -- Raul Castro's older brother -- ended religious holidays in Cuba as part of the transformation to communism. In 1998, Fidel Castro reinstated Christmas as a holiday in Cuba to honor a request by then Pope John Paul, who visited Cuba that year.
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