Cardinal Parolin: Cuba’s announcement to release prisoners sign of great hope

By Vatican News 

"The news of the announced gradual release of 553 Cuban prisoners is a sign of great hope at the beginning of this Jubilee,"  said Cardinal Pietro Parolin responding to a request for a comment from Vatican Media on Wednesday.

"It is significant," added the Cardinal who is currently in France, "that Havana authorities linked this decision directly to Pope Francis' appeal, who, in the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee, and then on several other occasions, called for acts of clemency, as has often occurred during the Holy Year."

Cardinal Parolin noted that the the year 2024 "ended with the commutation of dozens of death sentences to life imprisonment by the President of the United States, and with the news that Zimbabwe abolished the death penalty.”

“We hope that 2025 will continue in this direction and that good news will multiply, especially with a truce for the many ongoing conflicts," he concluded.