Kerry asks Vatican to help win release of American jailed in Cuba

why he doesn't directly confront castro?
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Warren Strobel Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday asked the Vatican to help win the release of an American contractor who has been in jail in Cuba since 2009.

Kerry, the first Catholic U.S. secretary of state in more than 30 years, stopped at the Vatican on his way to Kuwait to hold talks with Pope Francis' top aide, Secretary of State Archbishop Pietro Parolin.

The talks mostly centered on the Middle East and efforts to bring an end to the Syrian civil war ahead of a peace conference in Geneva later this month.

"We talked also about Cuba and the need for respect for freedom of religion and freedom of, and respect for, human rights," Kerry told reporters after the meeting.

"I raised the issue of Alan Gross and his captivity, and we hope very much that there might be able to be assistance with respect to that issue," he said.

Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison for installing Internet networks for Cuban Jews in a U.S. program Cuba considers subversive.

His arrest in late 2009 and sentencing in March 2011 stalled a brief period of detente in U.S.-Cuba relations after President Barack Obama took office and quickly loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island for Cuban Americans with relatives in Communist-run Cuba.

The Vatican has relatively good diplomatic relations with Cuba. Former Pope Benedict and the late Pope John Paul both made major visits there.

The position held by Parolin, who will be elevated to the rank of cardinal next month, is the second most senior in the Vatican hierarchy after the pope and its holder is sometimes called the "deputy pope".

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