Havana: Pope Francis on Saturday applauded greatly improved cooperation between the Cuban government and the Roman Catholic Church and encouraged Cuba to continue providing freedom for the Church to fulfil its mission.

‘Today we renew those bonds of cooperation and friendship, so that the Church can continue to support and encourage the Cuban people in its hopes and concerns, with the freedom, the means and the space needed to bring the proclamation of the kingdom to the existential peripheries of society,’ the pope said in a speech at the airport upon arriving in Havana.