US embargo of Cuba a historical mistake: Orthodox Patriarch

Apparently the Patriarch's comments on the embargo are not fit to print in the USA's "free press" but that's no excuse for progressive Democrats not to know about this historic cold war fantasy busting event and diplomatic snub 90 miles offshore:

US embargo of Cuba a historical mistake: Orthodox Patriarch
Web posted at: 1/26/2004 3:11:43
Source ::: Agencies


Cuban President Fidel Castro (right) and Christian Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew (left) during the consecration of a small Orthodox church built in Byzantine style in the colonial heart of Old Havana, yesterday.

HAVANA: The leader of the Orthodox Church called the US embargo of Cuba a "historical mistake" in a Sunday sermon.

"The blockading of peoples and countries by society in general from other nations on earth is a historical mistake," Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said at San Nicolas Cathedral in Havana. "And the problems between nations and countries, like those between people, are resolved through dialogue."

Meanwhile Bartholomew, the visiting Orthodox ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the 300 million strong orthodox community worldwide, met with Cuban President Fidel Castro but snubbed a US reception that included Cuban dissidents, it emerged Saturday.

Bartholomew, Castro, and 23 others dined late Friday at Havana’s posh landmark Hotel Nacional, said Benjamin Leavenworth, spokesman for the Orthodox patriarch. “It was an extremely successful dinner,” he said, without elaborating.

... Cason’s event was attended by several dissidents, spouses of jailed dissidents, foreign diplomats and a delegation of Greek Americans. Bartholomew and his entourage, invited and expected to attend the reception, did not show up.

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