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Pope reaches out to young in Camaguey

Urging young people in Communist Cuba to return to their "Christian roots," Pope John Paul II on Friday also took aim at the United States for what he called its "deplorable" economic embargo.

The reference to the embargo, which began more than three decades ago, was made in a written message handed to a delegation of young Catholics at a Mass in Camaguey, an eastern city of colorful colonial buildings 300 miles from Havana.

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Camaguey

On Day 3, the pope travels east to Cuba's third largest city, Camaguey (population approximately 300,000).

Camaguey is about halfway between two other cities on the pope's itinerary, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba, and is a mix of Cuba's colonial and Marxist heritages.

In Camaguey the pope will celebrate Mass in the Ignacio Agramonte Plaza, then he will return to the capital to meet with students at Havana's National University. He'll also visit the tomb of a 19th-century Catholic priest, Rev. Felix Varela, who is revered by communists for his devotion to Cuban nationalism.