Patricia Zapor, Catholic News Service – The Shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, home to the 400-year-old statue of Cuba’s patroness, has always been an impressive sight: a towering pale yellow basilica perched in the picturesque foothills of the Sierra Maestra.

It’s where Pope Benedict XVI will visit March 27, making him the most prominent of tens of thousands of pilgrims expected to make the trek to the shrine of La Caridad, as the image is known, in this 400th anniversary year.

He also will celebrate open-air Masses in Havana and Santiago de Cuba and meet with government and church leaders. But his main reason for coming, according to the Cuban bishops’ conference, is as a pilgrim of La Caridad. The Mass in Santiago also will be dedicated to La Caridad.

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