Havana, January 27 (RHC)-- I love this island, and I pray every day that the US government will recognize that maintaining a hostile policy against the Cuban people is a mistake.

His Metropolitan Eminence Athenagoras, Archbishop for Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, and the Caribbean islands, made this statement during the celebration of a new anniversary of the consecration of the first Greek Orthodox temple on Cuban soil.

"Although I am Greek, I feel Cuban at heart," he added during the divine liturgy held in the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas of Myra, the first of its kind in Cuba, which was consecrated on January 25, 2004, by His All Holiness Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch,  reported Granma.

"I am here today, not as a visitor or as an Orthodox, but as a humble man, who loves these people and the faithful that our Church has on this side of the world," he said in the divine liturgy, which was attended by Reinaldo García Zapata, recently elected governor of Havana.

"Every day, I ask that the position of the United States towards the people and government of Cuba change. This is a brother country that only wishes peace for the world. No one has the right to close the doors on it," he concluded.

Present at the ceremony were the Cardinal of the Catholic Church Juan de la Caridad García, Archbishop of Havana, and Monsignor Giampiero Gloder, Vatican Apostolic Nuncio to Cuba. Also, Reverend Antonio Santana, president of the Council of Churches of Cuba, and Enrique Alemán, president of the Federation of Spiritualists of Cuba.