Pope Francis ended his Cuba trip yesterday and headed to the US with a message of reconciliation for the former Cold War foes while avoiding controversy on the US trade embargo or human rights on the Communist-run island.

The 78-year-old Argentine pointedly chose not to antagonise either side after he helped mediate the detente between the two adversaries separated by 145 kilometres of sea.

Cuba would have welcomed a papal condemnation of the embargo and Washington would have appreciated any reference to rights on the Caribbean island, especially after about 100 dissidents were rounded up by police to prevent them from seeing the Pope.

But he steered away from those polarising issues here, dampening expectations for what he might say in the US, where he will meet with President Barack Obama, deliver the first address by a Pope before Congress, and speak at the UN.

The Pope, who departed at midday for Washington in his Alitalia plane, spent his last two days in Cuba at a symbol of national unity, the shrine to the Virgin of Charity in the eastern town of El Cobre, near Cuba’s second city of Santiago.

The Virgin of Charity, a statuette of the Madonna and Child said to have been rescued from the sea miraculously dry four centuries ago, is venerated by most Cubans, including non-believers and practitioners of Afro-Cuban religions.

“Like Mary, Mother of Charity, we want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation,” Pope Francis said in his homily at the shrine in El Cobre, a former copper-mining town.

At his final event in Santiago’s cathedral, crowds pressed to enter the square but were held back by security. “I’m a revolutionary and a Catholic!” pleaded one woman, seeking to enter the Cathedral so her daughter could receive a blessing.

Santiago and El Cobre sit in the shadow of the Sierra Maestra mountains where Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro led their 1959 revolution.

We want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation

The Pope spent time and exchanged gifts with both the atheist Castro brothers, who once repressed the Church but have since allowed it to grow into the largest non-Communist organisation that they trust.

Pope Francis paid a visit to Fidel Castro, 89 and retired, at his Havana home on Sunday. He also spent an hour behind closed doors with Raul Castro, 84, who took over as president after an ailing Fidel retired in 2008.

Raul Castro attended all three Masses celebrated by the Pope in Havana, Holguin and El Cobre, but he never accepted communion despite declaring in May that his admiration for Francis might lure him back to the Church.

After the 1959 revolution that toppled the US-backed Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban government ran off priests, sent others to work camps and occupied Church property.

But Fidel Castro changed course in the 1990s, lifting a ban on religious believers in the Communist Party and formally changing Cuba from an atheist to a secular state.

Pope John Paul’s historic 1998 trip to Cuba broke down further barriers, helping restore the Church’s standing.

Pope Francis addressing the crowd from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Santiago de Cuba, yesterday. Photo: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

Yesterday, Pope Francis called for a “revolution of tenderness” and praised past generations for keeping the Catholic flame alive.

“The soul of the Cuban people... was forged amid suffering and privation which could not suppress the faith,” he said. “Grandmothers, mothers, and so many others... kept open a tiny space, small as a mustard seed.”

Some dissidents have criticised the Church for choosing to boost its influence instead of denouncing human rights violations and pressing for more democratic freedoms in a one-party state that monopolises the media.

The Church maintains its job is to help leaders make the right choices, not prod them into specific policy positions, and that it cannot wade into partisan politics.

Vatican aides have indicated the Pope will also avoid meddling in US politics on his visit there.

He will become the first pope to speak to the US Congress, which alone has the power to lift the embargo of Cuba and has resisted Obama’s calls to do so.

Pope Francis’s approach in Cuba was softer than that of his predecessors, Pope John Paul in 1998 and Pope Benedict in 2012, and seems aimed at quietly encouraging Cubans at a delicate time following the resumption of diplomatic ties with the US.

Meanwhile, the Cuban Church is discreetly negotiating greater space for its mission. In any case, Cubans were happy to have received a visit from the Pope.

“We Cubans feel flattered that three Popes have visited us,” said a nun, Francisca Bermudez.

“A Pope’s visit is always a blessing.”