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Cuba allows religion in prisons for first time in 50 years

The Cuban government has given permission for religious services to be held in the island's prisons for the first time in 50 years, a church official said on Tuesday.

The services will be allowed in all prisons where the inmates request them, said Marcial Miguel Hernandez, president of the Cuban Council of Churches.

The communist government's relations with the religious world have been rocky since the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power.

But tensions have slowly eased since a 1998 visit by Pope John Paul II.

Last Christmas and Easter, religious services were permitted in some prisons for the first time since the revolution.

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)