HAVANA — In a dilapidated eatery in Old Havana, Josef Fonseca, 92, sat in a worn plastic chair Saturday evening watching the arrival of Pope Francis in Cuba on a television with a snowy screen.  Fonseca, an old truck driver retired for decades, wept as the pope descended from the airplane to be greeted by President Raúl Castro. A small crowd of workers and pensioners gathered in silence to hear Francis’ speech, focused intently on the small TV.  Mr. Fonseca mopped his watery blue eyes with a pink rag.  “I’m a little emotional,” he said, his speech halting. “He’s a Latino; he understands us better. It’s not that the others have been bad, just that this one is different. This one gets closer to our humanity.”  For many Cubans, the arrival of the first Latin American pope to their country was a powerful moment, coming at a time of warming relations with the United States — a rapprochement that the pontiff himself helped broker. Mr. Castro welcomed Francis after he landed in Cuba on Saturday shortly before 4 p.m., likening the pope’s message of equality and service to the poor as the ideals of the Cuban revolution.  In the welcoming center, both men alluded to the historic diplomatic breakthrough with the United States.  “For some months now, we have witnessed an event which fills us with hope: the process of normalizing relations between two people following years of estrangement,” Francis said. “It is a sign of the victory of the culture of encounter and dialogue.” Francis also urged leaders in the United States and Cuba “to persevere on this path” and become “an example of reconciliation for the entire world.”  The pope kept his remarks brief as a crowd of Cubans cheered along the edges of the airport. He cited the beloved Cuban writer José Martí more than once and recalled his predecessors’ journeys to Cuba in 1998 and 2012.  The pontiff arrived in a nation brimming with anticipation. Though Cuba has received the last two popes, Francis is different for many Cubans: a Latin American who speaks of the ills of capitalist systems and about social equality — and who can do so in Spanish.  He is likely to press for more space and freedom for the church to operate in Cuban society. As it stands, the church can run neither schools nor hospitals; it instead focuses much of its energy on aiding poor people whom the ailing state can no longer afford to support.  In his speech, the pope touched briefly on a topic many anticipate he will broach with more energy when he says Mass on Sunday in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution: the freedom of the church in Cuba.  He said the church supported and encouraged “the freedom, the means and the space needed to bring the proclamation of the kingdom to the existential peripheries of society.”  There are more questions looming over the visit: Will the pope also speak publicly about political freedom, or will he walk the fine line between speaking his mind to the Cuban state and souring the mood of his hosts? Can he expand the church’s membership in a country where just 4 to 5 percent of the population is considered to be practicing Catholics?  “In our country, we have faith,” said Julio Pernoz Santiago, 26, who was at a gathering of young Catholics on Friday night in front of the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception. “At the moment, though, there are some discrepancies between religion and politics.”  In reality, those differences are perhaps at their smallest since the government swept into power after the 1959 revolution. Back then, Fidel Castro declared Cuba an atheist state and chased off religious leaders, in some cases even claiming the church’s properties.  But these days, the church enjoys a wider berth. The state is now considered secular by its Constitution.  Cubans have mixed opinions on the lasting effect that the pontiff’s visit will have. Some are confident that this is a symbolic moment that will expedite the state’s slow process of opening up to the world. Others think the visit is mere theatrics, another of the government’s attempts to appear to be changing while Cubans get by, on average, with $20 a month in earnings.  Still others, while lavishing praise on the pope, argue that it is the government itself, led by the president, that is bringing the change.  “Everyone thinks it’s just the pope,” said Yosbany Cano Gancés, 39, a government worker. “But the real change has been coming from Raúl.”  Whatever the pope’s message is during the remainder of his brief visit to Cuba, one thing he is not expected to do is meet with political dissidents. The decision has sparked criticism from certain crowds for taking what they view as a politically expedient route.  For some Cubans, however, that hardly matters. Early Saturday morning, as the sun crept over the pastel montage of Havana, Ramon Rodríguez wheeled himself along a main avenue in the neighborhood of Marianao.  The pope would be passing by, and he wanted to be ready. There wasn’t exactly competition. The bus station that he settled in front of was still closed, and aside from the occasional passer-by who waved or stopped to chat, he was alone. Traffic groaned by as the city awoke.  “In the 1980s, religion here was difficult,” he said, adding that he was a practicing Catholic. “Fidel was our religion.”  “Now, it’s more normal,” he said.  A version of this article appears in print on September 20, 2015, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Excitement in Havana Is Tinged With Doubts About Visit’s Effect. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
As Pope Francis arrives for a four-day stay in Cuba, residents wonder if he will speak publicly about political freedom and what change, if any, his visit will bring to the nation.