(Vatican City, VAT) - Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday he will travel to communist Cuba and Mexico next year for a keenly awaited visit "to proclaim the word of Christ," hailing Latin America as a new global player.
The pope told a Vatican mass in honour of Latin America that the region had "an emerging new role in the international context," adding that the time had come "to evangelise with solid faith, lively hope and ardent charity."
"Supported by divine providence, I intend to carry out an apostolic voyage before Easter to Mexico and Cuba to proclaim the word of Christ," the 84-year-old pontiff said during a mass relayed to millions across Latin America.
The visits are expected in March although no official dates were announced.
Vatican officials said the pope, who has shown signs of tiredness in recent months, will have to keep the trip short and avoid high altitudes.
At the mass in the Vatican, Pope Benedict also called for renewed efforts "to overcome poverty, illiteracy and corruption and to eradicate injustice, violence, criminality, drug trafficking and extortion" in Latin America.
The visit will be the pope's first to Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. He visited Brazil to meet with Latin American bishops in 2007.
The pope's announcement was greeted by applause in the basilica at a mass that mixed Latin chants with South American guitar-playing and drums.
In Havana, the Cuban Bishops' Conference said it awaited the visit "with joy and hope."
Vatican spokesman said last month that the visit would coincide with the 400-year anniversary of the Virgin of Charity -- the patroness of Cuba.
The pope's predecessor, John Paul II, made a historic visit to Cuba in 1998. On it, the former Karol Wojtyla, a Pole widely seen as an inspiration to bringing down communism in eastern Europe, urged Cuba's communist authorities to open up to the world, saying the world would return the favor.
But more than a decade later, Cuba's one-party Communist regime, the only one in the Americas, is still in place. It has not opened up politically or econmically and it is severely isolated economically and politically.
After decades of official atheism, the Cuban regime now has more cordial relations with the Catholic and other churches. Most Cubans however do not consider themselves practicing Catholics.
Mexico, in contrast, is overwhelmingly Catholic but has seen Protestant churches make significant inroads in recent years, as they have in many Latin American countries from Central America to Brazil.
