Good Friday his advisers, decreed that Good Friday that year would be a holiday. This was Castro's response to a request made personally to him by Pope Benedict XVI during the latter's Apostolic Visitation to the island and León, Mexico that month. The move followed the pattern of small advances in Cuba's relations with the Vatican, mirroring Pope John Paul II's success in getting Fidel Castro to declare Christmas Day a holiday. Both Good Friday and Christmas are now annual holidays in Cuba. In Hong Kong, despite the transfer of sovereignty from the UK to China in 1997, Good Friday continues to
Foreign Office papal visit memo for five years instead of the usual one year, because of the severity of his actions. He was also banned from overseas postings for a duration of five years. Foreign Office papal visit memo The Foreign Office papal visit memo was an incident that occurred in the United Kingdom in April 2010, after it was revealed that two Foreign Office civil servants working on preparing the State Visit of Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 had sent out an internal memo containing remarks that could be considered insults to the Pope. The incident received wide media coverage and speculation that the