Cuba authorizes religious services in prisons

HAVANA (Reuters) - 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.

"For us, it's an expression and act of good faith by the Cuban authorities," he told Reuters.

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.

The Catholic Church, Cuba's largest organized religion, has long pushed for the right to hold masses behind bars.

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

The government's change in policy means now they will not be restricted to special occasions.

(Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Editing by Jeff Franks and Eric Walsh)