Vatican's warming ties with Cuba helped thaw US relations

The Catholic Church was key in helping to broker the historic reconciliation between the US and Cuba, but its role in the communist island has not always been so easy.

On Sunday, Pope Francis will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro at the Vatican ahead of a papal trip to the United States in September.

The trips come after a historic rapprochement between the two sides at the end of last year that ended more than half a century of hostility, crucially brokered by the Holy See.

But the Church's relationship with Havana's communist leaders has not always been so warm.

In the early days of the regime in the 1960s, Raul's brother Fidel Castro expelled some 100 religious figures and nationalised numerous Church properties after it opposed the new regime.

It took several decades of diplomacy until Fidel Castro visited the Vatican to see John Paul II in 1996, who made a historic first papal visit to Cuba two years later.

Despite remaining an unofficial institution, the Church's status got another boost in 2010 when Raul Castro chose it as the mediator in another round of talks.

The dialogue improved further when 130 prisoners were released in Cuba that year and the next.

Religious Cubans helped to obtain commitments from the state to end the harassment of the "Ladies in White," an opposition movement made up of the wives and relatives of former political prisoners.

The Church has also supported the economic reforms put forward by Raul Castro in return for government help with social activities, such as access to state media or publishing parish magazines.

In 2010, the Church held its first seminar in Cuba in half a century.

The warming of ties continued in 2012 when Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba, where he condemned the US embargo on the communist nation while also calling for authorities to respect "fundamental freedoms".

Last year, Pope Francis wrote a personal plea to President Raul Castro and his US counterpart Barack Obama urging them to "initiate a new phase in relations between the two countries".

The Vatican also received delegations from both sides to help facilitate a "constructive dialogue" in October, two months before the thawing of ties was announced.