HAVANA (Reuters) – Pope Benedict, speaking from Cuba’s biggest stage, urged Cubans on Wednesday to search for “authentic freedom” and pressed the communist government to let the Catholic Church teach religion in schools and universities.

The pope, 84, led an open-air Mass for a crowd estimated by the Vatican at some 300,000 people in Havana’s Revolution Square, the centerpiece of a trip that began with a blast at communism and will end after a visit with Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Pope Benedict, speaking from Cuba’s biggest stage, urged Cubans on Wednesday to search for “authentic freedom” as their country changes and pressed the island’s communist government to give the Catholic Church more liberties, including the right to teach religion in schools and run universities.

The 84-year-old pope celebrated an open-air Mass for some 300,000 people in Havana’s Revolution Square, the centerpiece of a trip that began with a blast at communism and will end with a visit with Fidel Castro.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Pope Benedict steps onto Cuba’s biggest stage on Wednesday with a public mass in Havana’s Revolution Square as he wraps up a trip that began with a blast at communism and will end with a visit with Fidel Castro.

Crowds began gathering during the night to hear the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics speak in the sprawling plaza that Castro, 85, used to fill with big crowds and fiery revolutionary rhetoric in hours-long speeches.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Pope Benedict stepped up his calls for change and a greater role for the Catholic Church in communist-run Cuba on Tuesday but was quickly rebuffed by a senior government official who ruled out political reforms in the one-party state.

As the pope’s trip drew to a close and Benedict met with President Raul Castro, the Vatican also disclosed it had made a “humanitarian request” to Havana, raising speculation that it might be seeking the release of political prisoners or jailed American Alan Gross.

HAVANA (Reuters) – Pope Benedict and Cuban President Raul Castro met on Tuesday for talks on a papal trip that has sparked hopes for economic and political change, but one national leader said there would be no political reform on the communist island.

Cuban television showed the pope and Castro in the Palace of the Revolution at the beginning and end of an hour-long meeting, but they did not speak to the press.

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) – Pope Benedict urged Cubans to “work for justice” as their country changes and prayed for “those deprived of freedom” in a visit to the shrine for Cuba’s patron saint on Tuesday and then flew across the country for talks with President Raul Castro.

Upon arrival at the Havana airport, he was greeted by Roman Catholic Church Cardinal Jaime Ortega and Communist Party officials ahead of a late afternoon meeting with Raul Castro and possibly his older brother, former leader Fidel Castro.

SANTIAGO, Cuba (Reuters) – Pope Benedict on Tuesday urged Cubans to “work for justice” during a ceremony to pay homage to the island’s patron saint, and said he was close to those “deprived of freedom,” an apparent reference to political prisoners in the communist-run nation.

A steel band played “Ave Maria” and onlookers waved Cuban flags as the pontiff visited a basilica housing the doll-sized figurine of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre on the second day of a papal trip the Roman Catholic Church hopes will foster renewed faith and increase its influence in Cuba.

SANTIAGO, Cuba (Reuters) – Pope Benedict will pay homage on Tuesday to a representation of Cuba’s patron saint, a diminutive doll-sized figurine called the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, on a trip he hopes will bring greater freedoms to the communist-run island.

The pontiff’s visit comes on the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the icon, which is an important figure for both the Roman Catholic Church and Santeria, the Afro-Cuban religion that is a legacy of Cuba’s slavery era and knows her as Ochun, the goddess of love.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba (Reuters) – Pope Benedict urged Cubans to build a better, “renewed and open society” on Monday and pressed the communist government to give the Catholic Church more freedoms to help the country in times of change.

After arriving from Mexico to start his first trip to Cuba, the pope celebrated an open-air Mass for tens of thousands of people in Revolution Square ringed by palm trees in this eastern city and he delivered a strong, clear message in his sermon as President Raul Castro listened from the front row.