Pope Francis used his visit to Cuba for political purposes over the weekend in assigning hope to "the process of normalizing relations between two peoples (the United States and Cuba) following years of estrangement."
But he missed a great opportunity to tell the very individuals who forced that estrangement how they might foster better relations.
The pope met separately with both current communist dictator Raul Castro and his predecessor, longtime dictator Fidel Castro, but, at least publicly, did not tell them the human-rights benefits of a people who live in freedom.
Instead, during a Mass in Havana's Revolution Plaza, he made vague references to communist rule, urging those within his hearing to beware of rigid ideologies that stifle communication, to "serve people, not ideas" and that "service is never ideological."
Earlier, upon his arrival in the Caribbean island nation 90 miles off the U.S. coast, he urged a continuation of President Barack Obama's initiative to change the U.S. narrative toward the country, which has been under communist rule for more than 55 years.
"I urge political leaders to persevere on this path," he said, "and to develop all its potentialities as a proof of the high service which they are called to carry out on behalf of the peace and well-being of their peoples, of all America, and as an example of reconciliation for the entire world."
One of those "potentialities" is the U.S. trade embargo against the country.
But negotiations are a two-way street, and normalized relations up to now have been one-way. If the U.S. were to drop its trade embargo, it should have some guarantee of the country moving toward or reverting to a free-market economy, which would improve the lives of millions of Cubans.
Cuba, after all, is still a communist nation and for the past 55 years has governed like one, doling out diminutive dollops of government largess to its people while holding the rest close to the vest.
Its people still live under a regime which has control over most every aspect of life, and those who step out of line - like the dissidents who were kept from hearing the pope - are arrested, jailed, or, at a minimum, risk losing their benefits.
So, photos of thousands of Cubans attending a Mass, of the pope waving from his popemobile and of the pope shaking hands with the Castro brothers are nice theater, but freedom is the real thing.