MIAMI – When Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998, the Archdiocese of Miami expected so much interest from U.S. parishioners wanting to witness the historic event that they booked a cruise ship to transport and house all the expected pilgrims.

But many in South Florida’s Cuban-American community were outraged by the image of a cruise ship full of Americans docking in Havana, so under pressure the archdiocese cancelled the charter.

Now, 14 years later, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski is leading a pilgrimage of 302 mostly Cuban-Americans to Santiago de Cuba and Havana to witness Pope Benedict XVI’s visit. And the Miami archbishop will even celebrate mass at Havana’s Cathedral on Tuesday afternoon.

What’s changed?

University of Miami Professor Andy Gomez says many in the exile community are beginning to embrace the idea of direct contact with the Cuban people even though they do not agree with the government. Others, who still do not agree with travel to the island, Gomez says, are just plain tired of arguing about it.

“After 53 years of that system of government on the island, we are tired,” he said.

So Gomez gathered a group – his wife and his two daughters’ in-laws – to discuss the issues and let NBC News sit-in to hear the “family debate.” The three couples are all successful professionals living in Miami who emigrated to the U.S. with their families as children shortly after the revolution.

Esteban Felix / AP

American pilgrims, mostly Cuban-Americans, pray at the Virgen del Cobre Church in Santiago de Cuba on Monday. More than 300 Cuban-Americans and other pilgrims have arrived in Cuba for Pope Benedict XVI's visit on a trip led by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

Here are snippets from their conversation.

“For 53 years we isolated the island. We do have an embargo and Obama is the eleventh president that has tried to negotiate with the Castro brothers. Nobody has been able to negotiate with these guys. So isn’t it time maybe to build bridges with the people directly?” Andy Gomez said to kick things off.

But Maria Eugenia Smith, the mother of one his son-in-laws, disagreed. She’s not ready to go back yet. “I came to the United States when I was 3 years old. And I would like to go to my homeland and see where I was born. But I would never step there with Communism. I would never do that.”

Tony Rivas was exhausted by the whole debate. “The exile community is tired. We are tired. We have lived our entire lives outside of Cuba. Most of us came here when we were very small or teenagers. Basically, this is our country, the United States.”

Although, his wife, Virginia Rivas, felt that pope’s visit could unify the two disparate groups. “I think that is the role of the pope going to Cuba,” said Virginia Rivas. “Trying to unite, not the exile or the Cuban people there, but we are all one nation and we have to overcome all… We have to be better people.”

Will anything really change?
“I think one of the key issues here is how much space the church is going to gain after the pope’s visit,” said Andy Gomez. “Fidel Castro was very good at opening the faucet and letting the water out and then closing it. Raul has opened the faucet but these are different times, he’s not going to be able to close it.”

Tony Rivas didn’t think the Cuban people will gain much in terms of freedom and individual rights. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing for the pope to go, but the people are not going to be any better off than they were before the visit. [The government is] using this…but they are still putting everybody that has any disagreement against the government in jail.

“I disagree,” said Frances Serantes Gomez, Andy’s wife. “I feel that there is some type of movement right now and if anything this is an acknowledgment that they know about [the dissidents].”

But Tony Rivas countered, “In 1998 when Pope John Paul II went to Cuba, everyone was expecting great things and change. Everyone was expecting Poland all over again. And the reality was … nothing happened.”

“But you know what? It’s Fidel Castro who opened the faucet and closed it back up,” Frances Serantes Gomez. “This is Raul – things might be a little different now.”

“We hope,” said Tony Rivas.
 
“But I see it that the people there do need the Church, so we have to reach out to them,” said Maria Eugenia Smith. I have mixed feelings with this trip. I really do.”

Her husband, Jose Smith, also believed that the church could potentially be a force for change. “If you’re going to eradicate Communism, it’s going to start through the Church. The only thing is they just don’t have the power to do it,” said Jose Smith. 

“The Catholic Church is really where you are. If you want to reach out to the people, it’s really not the Vatican, it’s the local church, the local priest that has to reach out,” said Tony Rivas. “I don’t see them as being a force in the community.

Jose Smith countered, “[If you are just] 10 percent of the population, what kind of force can you be?”

“Hopefully the Church will do what they have to do. Forget about Fidel Castro and the politics involved,” said Maria Eugenia Smith. “We need to get to the people. We need to get God and faith there. Hopefully, if we get Jesus Christ, God, faith there we can motivate those people to do something about their lives.”

Pope Benedict XVI is on a state visit to Cuba this week hoping to highlight the role of the Roman Catholic Church on the Communist island, as well as making subtle push for change.

Benedict called for "renewal and hope, for the greater good of all Cubans," during a speech on Tuesday. "I have also prayed to the Virgin for the needs of those who suffer, of those who are deprived of freedom, those who are separated from their loved ones or who are undergoing times of difficulty."

But the Cuban government was quick to say that there "will not be political reform" in the country as a result of the pope's visit.

NBC News' Mark Potter is in Havana. He answered interesting reader questions about Benedict's visit earlier today.

Click below to replay the chat.

HAVANA, Cuba – At the historic San Francisco de Paula church, in a working-class neighborhood of Havana, Auxiliary Bishop Alfredo Petit recently walked the long hallways where priests, nuns and lay workers were busy caring for some of Cuba's elderly and infirm and also operating an orphanage. Outside the church is a sign welcoming the pope: "Bienvenido a Cuba Benedicto XVI."

Petit hopes during the pontiff's three-day visit to the island his messages will provide an important boost for the Cuban Catholic Church and perhaps even inspire some gradual changes in Cuban society.  "I don't know what the words will be, but I think they will suggest more respect for human dignity,” he said.

Since the Cuban revolution in 1959, the Catholic Church has struggled to raise its public profile here. For decades, under the Marxist government of Fidel Castro, the church was ostracized and believers were punished. The country was officially declared atheist until the government loosened that description in the 1990's.

But, with Fidel Castro out of power now and his younger brother, Raul, in charge, the church has become much more accepted by the government. Recently, Cuban Cardinal Jamie Ortega negotiated the release of more than 100 political prisoners, although he was criticized by human rights activists after most of the prisoners were sent into exile.

"The church has now been accepted as a legitimate and important interlocutor of the government on sensitive topics like freeing political prisoners, the conditions of those in prison, the treatment of dissidents," said Jorge Dominguez, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.  "This is a wholly unprecedented role for the Roman Catholic in Cuba for the past half century."

With funds and supplies donated from overseas, the church also provides much-needed social services now as the government struggles to reshape Cuba's troubled economy. Church-run food banks and retirement homes along with medicine distribution centers have become lifelines many of Cuba's extremely poor.

"It is very convenient for the government that the church will engage in activities providing for people in need," said Juan Clark, a Miami Dade College professor emeritus and an expert on the Cuban Church.

Still, tensions remain over the issues of religious and personal freedoms.

Last year, the church convinced state security to stop harassing the "Ladies in White," a church-based dissident group. However, two weekends ago, three-dozen members of the group were detained during a protest march in Havana. Ironically, 13 other dissidents who recently sought sanctuary in a Havana basilica were turned over by church officials to police, sparking accusations the church may have actually grown too close to Cuban leaders.

Pope Benedict is now urging Cuba to find new alternatives to Marxism – patiently and peacefully – as the Catholic Church maintains a delicate relationship with the Communist government here. 

The pope’s first stop on Monday will be Santiago de Cuba, the island's second city where he will celebrate a large open-air mass. On Tuesday, he visits the town of El Cobre, home to a tiny wooden statue of Our Lady of Charity, a symbol revered by all Cubans – Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

Later that day he flies to Havana for what is expected to be a meeting with both Raul and Fidel Castro. On Wednesday morning he will celebrate another mass in Havana before departing the country.

Desmond Boylan / Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI and Cuba's President Raul Castro walk together after the pope's arrival in Santiago de Cuba on Monday afternoon.

SANTIAGO, Cuba – There was an air of excitement in Antonio Maceo Plaza here in this island’s second largest city as people anxiously awaited Pope Benedict XVI’s arrival Monday afternoon.

Santiago is the first stop on his three-day visit to the island. Just 12 miles outside of town, is the sanctuary of El Cobre, the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, a tiny wooden statue that is revered by all Cubans – Catholic and non-Catholic alike – and which the pope is coming to see.  

While Cuba’s communist government is ostensibly anti-religious, it is treating the papal visit like that of any other head of state. Granma, the Communist government newspaper, put Benedict’s visit on its front page Monday and every event of the visit will be televised and broadcast on state-run radio. 

Most businesses were closed here today in anticipation of the big arrival. The pope will celebrate an open-air Mass Monday evening in the plaza which thousands are expected to attend. 

Among those most excited is architect Juan Ramon Navarro, a 36-year-old father of two who designed the giant altar under which the pope will celebrate Mass.

Navarro explained that if you look at the altar from the sides, the 45-foot high arches create an "M" for the Virgin Mary. It is decorated in red, white and blue, just like the Cuban flag, and he said the canvas cover is meant to conjure up the image of Mary's skirt.

Kerry Sanders / NBC News

The open-air altar Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate mass in Santiago de Cuba on Monday.

“I am thrilled,” Navarro said about the finished product. "It's quite an honor, as you can imagine."

Battle to balance ideals
Catholic or not, many of Cuba’s 11 million citizens are hoping Benedict will push for greater economic and political freedoms on the island.

Since its 1959 revolution, which was centered here, Cuba’s Communist government has survived the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But now it is in a battle to balance its ideals – a socialist government that would care for its population from the cradle to the grave – with the realities of pressure from sanctions and an increasingly competitive world economy.

And into the breach, the church has increasingly stepped up to provide the social safety net, this despite the fact that only 10 percent of the population identify themselves as Catholics.

Government food rations here don't last the elderly an entire week. Instead, the Catholic Church now feeds and supplements medicine for the elderly.

Havana's Cardinal Jamie Ortega has also played an increasingly political role – recently he quietly helped negotiate the release of more than 100 jailed political dissidents.

Kerry Sanders / NBC News

A parishoner looks up at the the sanctuary of El Cobre, the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, a tiny wooden statue that is revered by all Cubans - Catholics and non-Catholics a

The church does not flaunt its influence in Cuba out of a fear it will offend President Raul Castro, or his brother Fidel, and in the process lose all it has gained since Pope John Paul II visited 14 years ago.

But the church does not shy away from controversy either.

Prior to his arrival this afternoon, Pope Benedict told reporters on his plane from Rome that, "it is evident that Marxist ideology as it was conceived no longer responds to reality."

Franklin Reyes / AP

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, holds up his Honoris Causa distinction conferred by Gustavo Cobreiro, rector of the University Havana, right, Wednesday in Havana, Cuba, his third stop of a Latin American tour.

HAVANA -- No surprise to anyone that we're hearing tough words during the Latin American tour of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Swinging through Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador, the Iranian leader seems to be at home among America’s united enemies — and the left leaders equally comfortable with him.

First and foremost, Ahmadinejad seems to be on his tour to defend his country’s nuclear program. While Iran claims that the nation’s nuclear program is solely for energy and other peaceful purposes, the United States and Western allies accuse Tehran of secretly building nuclear weapons.

During Monday’s stop in Caracas, Ahmadinejad addressed the issue head on and charged the Obama administration with making unjust threats. 

"They say we're making a bomb. ... Everyone knows that those words ... are a joke, something to laugh at." Ahmadinejad claims Washington is just "afraid" of Iran’s development.

For his part, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused Washington of demonizing Iran and trumping up false claims about the nuclear issue "like they used the excuse of weapons of mass destruction to do what they did in Iraq."

Chavez even joked how Ahmadinejad’s tour was making America nervous: "When we devils get together ... it's like they go crazy," Chavez said.

From Caracas, Ahmadinejad headed to Managua for the inauguration of Daniel Ortega to another term. He called Ortega his "brother president" while Ortega praised Ahmadinejad for his "peace" efforts. Once again, Ahmadinejad dismissed the accusations about Iran's nuclear program.

Wednesday morning, Ahmadinejad landed in Havana.

In each country so far, Ahmadinejad secured the backing for his controversial nuclear program. Don’t expect less from the Cubans.

Fidel Castro is on the record defending Iran's right to develop nuclear energy and ridiculing the Obama administration for claiming that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Receiving an honorary doctorate in political science from Havana University, Ahmadinejad spent almost his entire acceptance speech accusing the West of being the world's "bully." The wars in the Middle East, he charged, have been all about winning elections in the West and about controlling oil reserves.

Ahmadinejad was also expected to meet with the Castro brothers during his one-day visit. Again, we should expect to hear more of the same given that the two countries see eye to eye, especially when it comes to the United States. Since the start of Iran’s nuclear program, Havana has unflaggingly defended Tehran's right to develop nuclear technology while openly ridiculing the Obama administration for its claim that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

And for Iran's part, the Islamic nation has repeatedly condemned the U.S. economic embargo against the island nation.

But, for as much as this trip is about criticizing U.S. policies, it also seems to have a practical edge to it. Ahmadinejad is talking up the importance of trade in Latin America.

In Venezuela, Iran has already invested in the construction industry along with factories producing farm machinery, trucks and food products.

Cuban-Iran economic ties are fairly strong too.

Back in 2003, the two countries agreed to support mutual foreign investment and expand bilateral trade. Since then, Iran has extended 200 million in euro credit to the island, which the island has used primarily to upgrade its rail system. There is discussion to increase that line of credit to 500 million euros. Cuba is helping to build a plant in Iran that produces vaccines and medicines. The bilateral trade is said to be as much as 30 million euros a year.

From here, the Iranian leader heads to Ecuador as the last stop on his whirlwind tour.

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