Havana, Cuba, Apr 20, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The AVAN news agency is reporting that fourteen couples from Cuba have applied for permission from the Castro regime to travel to Valencia, Spain, for the V World Meeting of Families, which will be held July 1-9.
The Cuban delegation will be joined by the president of the Cuban Bishops’ Committee on the Family, Bishop Arturo Gonzalez of Santa Clara, and by Bishop Emilio Aranguren of Holguin.
According to Liana Lorigados of AVAN, if the couples receive the proper visas, it will be the largest Cuban delegation to ever attend a World Meetings of Families. The bishops of Cuba, she said, “are already obtaining room and board for the couples.”
She also said that the Cuban dioceses are currently distributing catechetical material to help prepare for the event and that a day of formation and festivities has been planned for May 15 in Cuba.