* Pope helped broker historic U.S.-Cuban rapprochement
* Vatican opposes embargo, says hurts ordinary people most
* Francis to become first pope to address U.S. Congress
* Obama wants to lift embargo; Republican Congress resisting
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Pope Francis is expected
to raise the Vatican's opposition to the United States' embargo
against Cuba during his forthcoming trip but he will not dwell
on the issue so as not to be seen as interfering in U.S.
politics, Vatican officials say.
The pope leaves on Saturday on a trip that will take him
first to Cuba and then to the United States and how he addresses
the embargo is keenly awaited in both countries.
The visit caps his success in helping to bring the former
enemies together after more than half a century of animosity
through secret talks brokered by the Vatican. Full diplomatic
relations were restored in July.
U.S. President Barack Obama has modestly eased some business
and travel restrictions but the broader embargo remains in
place, 53 years after measures were first imposed.
The Vatican opposes the embargo, saying that ordinary Cubans
are those who suffer most from its effects.
"Francis is as strongly opposed to the embargo as his
predecessors," said one Vatican official who spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
When former Pope Benedict visited Cuba in 2012, he condemned
"restrictive economic measures, imposed from outside the
country, (that) unfairly burden its people."
Pope John Paul condemned the embargo in strong words several
times during his landmark trip to Cuba in 1998, the first by a
pope.
"The pope is going to Cuba at a crucial time in its history.
He wants to show his closeness to the Cuban people and that
means acknowledging the hardships they have endured under the
embargo," another official said.
But both said they did not expect the issue of embargo to
loom large during the trip, and particularly not during his time
in the United States, where Francis will become the first pope
to address the U.S. Congress.
Only Congress can lift the embargo, something majority
Republicans are unlikely to do anytime soon despite the
Democratic president's appeal for it to be rescinded.
The pope does not want to "rock the boat" because he
realises that his trip is taking place at a delicate time in
fledgling U.S.-Cuban relations, one of the officials said.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, leveraged the
Vatican's ties to both countries, writing letters to Cuban
President Raul Castro and Obama to help foster last December's
announcement of the resumption of diplomatic relations.
"He's not going to hit Congress over the head about the
embargo," one of the officials said. "That could backfire and
our position on the embargo has always been clear."
Havana's Cardinal Jaime Ortega has said when Francis met
Obama last year before relations were restored that the pontiff
told Obama there would be many benefits for the United States if
it lifted the embargo.
"Look, this is not only good for the people of Cuba, who
have suffered much, but also for your government, for you
personally and for your country's relations with Latin America,"
Ortega quoted the pope as telling Obama at the Vatican.
Francis will have a private meeting with Obama at the White
House next Wednesday.