For the past year, Pope Francis and Vatican members urged both President Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro to free convicted spies held in their respective prisons and played a key role in helping the countries normalize relations that have been strained since the late 1950s.
After Obama’s meeting with the pope back in March, Pope Francis sent letters to both the U.S. president and Castro, making an appeal to free the remaining three members of the Cuban Five spy group from American jails and U.S. contractor Alan Gross who was held in Cuba.
The Vatican was the only nation directly involved in the talks between the U.S. and Cuba, although Canada did host discussions with the two countries back in the spring of 2013.
