A group of American Catholic leaders visiting Cuba are calling for an end to what they call an economic policy that punishes ordinary Cubans. They are urging the Obama administration to lift the 47-year-old economic embargo against Cuba’s communist government. The Miami Herald reports:

Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando said the U.S. church welcomed a recent move by Washington to relax travel restrictions on Cuban Americans with family in Cuba, as well on the remittances they can send to those families. But he said there is much more to be done…The U.S. church long has urged an end to the embargo, imposed by Washington in 1962 to weaken Cuba’s communist government. Opponents argue that easing or lifting the sanctions will only sustain a government that doesn’t tolerate dissent.