The Pope is probably still the most influential person in the world. Pope Francis played a key role in finalizing a deal to open relations between the United States and Cuba for the first time in 53 years, President Obama said Wednesday.

His Holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me and to Cuba's president, Raúl Castro, urging us to resolve Alan's case and to address Cuba's interests in the release of three Cuban agents, who've been jailed in the United States for over 15 years," Obama said.
The pope wrote a personal letter to Obama this fall — something he'd never done before — and a separate letter to Castro.The letter invited the leaders to "resolve humanitarian questions of common interest, including the situation of certain prisoners," according to a Vatican statement congratulating the two countries Wednesday.
Obama and Pope Francis discussed Cuba when the two met at the Vatican in March, senior administration officials said.
“Cuba was a topic of discussion that got as much attention as anything else that the two of them discussed,” one senior official said.

source: http://www.breakingnews234.com/2014/12/obama-pope-francis-urged-me-and-raul.html