The Cuban Government said on Wednesday that it maintains "excellent" ties with the Vatican 10 years after the late Pope John Paul II's visited the communist-ruled island.
That landmark trip turned the page on four decades of tensions between the Cuban state and the Catholic Church following Fidel Castro's leftist revolution in 1959.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will visit Cuba February 20-26 to to commemorate the 10th anniversary of John Paul II's trip.