Reiseruten for besøket 22.-25. januar 1998 offentliggjort

Itinerary Published for Pope's Trip to Cuba

VATICAN CITY, DEC 13, 1997 (VIS) - The itinerary for Pope John Paul's January trip to Cuba, his 81st pastoral trip outside of Italy, was published today. He will be in Cuba from January 21 to 26, 1998.

The Pope is scheduled to depart Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, January 21, arriving at Cuba's capital of Havana at 4 p.m. local time. There will be a welcoming ceremony during which he will make a speech. He will spend each night in Havana, departing the mornings of January 22, 23 and 24 for three diverse cities.

On January 22, the Holy Father will travel to Santa Clara, where he will celebrate an outdoor Mass at 10:15. He will return to Havana in early afternoon. At 6 p.m. he will pay a courtesy call on the president of the republic, Fidel Castro, at the Revolution Palace.

On Friday, January 23, John Paul II departs for Camaguey where he will celebrate a mid-morning Mass in Ignacio Agramonte Square, during which he will administer baptism and confirmation. Following his return to Havana the Pope will meet at 6:30 p.m. with representatives of the world of culture in the Great Hall of the University of Havana.

Santiago de Cuba is on the Holy Father's schedule for Saturday, January 24. At 11:10 a.m. there will mass and the coronation of the Virgin of Charity of Cobre. In the afternoon he will return to Havana, where he is scheduled to visit the shrine of St. Lazarus at 7 p.m.

Pope John Paul's schedule for Sunday, January 25, includes an ecumenical encounter in the apostolic nunciature at 8 a.m., Mass at 9:30, followed by the angelus in Revolution Square, and at 12:45 p.m. a meeting with members of the Cuban Episcopal Conference in the archbishopric, a 5 p.m. encounter with the clergy, religious, seminarians and laity in Havana's cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and St. Christopher.

He will leave Cuba at 7:30 p.m. local time, arriving Rome on the 26th at 12:30 p.m.

JPII-TRIP/ITINERARY/...                                      VIS 971215 (320)