Odds and ends

• The Archdiocese of Miami announces a pilgrimage to Cuba to witness the Pope’s visit in March, with the option of seeing the masses in both Havana and Santiago. The Cuban Liberty Council’s Ninoska Perez calls the trip tourism and says it betrays a “total lack of ethics” on the part of the Archdiocese. In the Herald, Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski looks ahead to the Pope’s visit to Cuba.

• Herald: Speaking of pilgrimages, candidate Newt Gingrich schlepped to Versailles, Calle Ocho’s very nice, reasonably priced restaurant, café, and pastry shop. He was joined by Rep. David Rivera, who has endorsed him. Gingrich changed his position on Cuba, calling for restoration of the Bush travel restrictions of 2004. (Previously he said he would not reverse the Obama travel opening). He wants “a Cuban Spring that is even more exciting than the Arab Spring.” Plus full enforcement of Helms-Burton and indictment of Fidel and Raul Castro and their sisters and their cousins and their aunts. Plus new governments in Havana, Caracas, and Tehran.

• Attorney Jose Palli writes a sharp essay in the Herald about fear of change in Cuba.

• Granma covers an address by Dr. Ahmadinejad at the University of Havana in which he rails against injustice around the world and says that capitalism is “in decline.” He saw Fidel Castro during his visit and told Raul that Fidel had done most of the talking; a sign, Raul said, that Fidel “is really doing well.”