Thousands of people took to the streets, waving Cuban flags along the roads of Havana on September 19, to welcome Pope Francis on his visit to the island nation.

PopeFrancis (right) and President Raul Castro - Photo: theepochtimes.com

"This visit is for all Cubans, for everyone who wants peace, not just Catholics," Orlando Alfaro, 43, who works for a travel company in Havana, told the American newspaper USA Today.

Peace and reconciliation will be the main theme of the Pope's four-day visit to Cuba, beginning on September 19th and taking him through Havana, Holguin, and Santiago de Cuba.

PopeFrancis greets the Cuban people - Photo: AP

This is the first visit of Pope Francis, 78, to Cuba, but the third visit by a pope to the island in just two decades.

Pope John Paul II made a groundbreaking and highly publicized visit to Cuba in 1998, followed by Pope Benedict XVI's visit in 2012.

This trip is all the more significant because Pope Francis played a crucial role in helping to restore diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba through his personal letter to US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in 2014, urging them to end the Cold War-era hostility between the two countries.

The global appeal of Pope Francis, as the first Latin American pope in history, and his ability to speak in Spanish will make this trip even more special for Cubans.

President Castro and senior members of the Cuban Church welcomed the Pope at Jose Marti International Airport with great ceremony.

“In the last few months, we have witnessed an event that offers much hope: the normalization of relations between the two peoples after years of tension,” the Pope said in Spanish. “I urge political leaders to continue on this path and develop it to the fullest extent.”

President Castro thanked the Pope for his role in bringing the United States and Cuba closer together, and reiterated his call for the U.S. to end its embargo against Cuba.

Cuban people welcome the Pope - Photo: AP

"Establishing diplomatic relations is the first step in the process of normalizing relations between the two countries," Castro said.

Afterward, the Pope traveled in his personal car, with a bulletproof, transparent rear window designed to allow him to stand, from the airport to his residence in Havana, to a warm welcome from the people lining the streets.

Next Tuesday, September 22nd, the Pope is scheduled to arrive in the United States, where he will meet with President Obama on the morning of September 23rd and preside over a canonization ceremony in Spanish, the first of its kind on American soil, for Junipero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan friar who founded a missionary society in the 18th century in what is now California.

According to TTO