CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Raul Castro Attends Inauguration of New Catholic Seminary in Havana.

CUBA, November 4, 2010.-  President Raul Castro attended on Wednesday the inauguration of the new San Carlos and San Ambrosio seminary in the outskirts of the Cuban capital.

The new Catholic seminary will replace the former one by the same name, located in Old Havana, which will be turned into a cultural center.

The construction of the new building began in 2006 although its first stone was blessed by late Pope John Paul II when he visited the island in 1998.

During the ceremony, the head of the Catholic church in Cuba, Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino, thanked Fidel and Raul Castro for their support.

“In the name of the Church, I thank both the former president, as well as current President Raul Castro, who honors us with his presence, for the state’s support of this work,” he said.

Also during the ceremony, Havana’s Auxiliary Archbishop Monsignor Alfredo Petit read a message sent by Pope Benedict XVI specially for the occasion in which he extended a blessing to all those who “have generously contributed to the construction of this building.”

Also speaking was Havana Historian Eusebio Leal who highlighted the tradition of the San Carlos and San Ambrosio seminary, its influence in the history of Cuba since its foundation in 1774, and its importance in the formation of famous Cuban patriots.

The inauguration was attended by other Cuban government authorities, members of the diplomatic corps in Havana and senior Vatican officials as well as a group of bishops from the United States, including Thomas Wenski, the Archbishop of Miami. Also present were Papal Nuncio Monsignor Angelo Becciu and the head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba and Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba Monsignor Dionisio Garcia Ibañez. (Cubaminrex-Cuban News Agency)

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