Family Honor His Legacy; How McCain Saved Ernest Hemingway's Havana Home
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. State of Arizona has said farewell to its six times Senator John McCain. His body has now arrived in Washington and will lay in state at the U.S. Capitol in the coming hours. On Thursday, McCain's family and friends for all sides of the political spectrum had gathered for a memorial service. We have more details from CNN's Nick Watt.</s>NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A flag-draped casket, a grieving family, and a Baptist service. Arizona's final farewell to her favorite adopted son. A eulogy from a political foe and personal friend.</s>BIDEN: My name is Joe Biden. I'm a Democrat. And I love John McCain.</s>WATT: McCain in death, keeping bipartisanship alive.</s>BIDEN: That's who John was, and he could not stand the abuse of power. Wherever he saw it, in whatever form, in whatever country. He'd always loved basic values, John, fairness, honesty, dignity, respect, giving hate no safe harbor, leaving no one behind and understanding it as Americans were part of something much bigger than ourselves.</s>WATT: Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals also spoke, he and McCain, mutual fans.</s>LARRY FITZGERALD, JR., WIDE RECEIVER, ARIZONA CARDINALS, NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: I'm black, he was white. I'm young, he wasn't so young. He lived with physical limitations brought on by war. I'm a professional athlete. He ran for president, I run out of bounds. He was the epitome of toughness and I do everything I can to avoid contact. I have flowing locks, and, well, he didn't. How does this unlikely pair become friends? I've asked myself the same question. But do you know what the answer is? That's just who he is.</s>WATT: Readings from two of McCain's seven children, Andrew.</s>ANDREW MCCAIN, SON OF JOHN MCCAIN: I have fought the good fight.</s>WATT: And Bridget, adopted as a child from Bangladesh.</s>BRIDGET MCCAIN, DAUGHTER OF JOHN MCCAIN: To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven, and the time to be born and the time to die.</s>WATT: And the recessional, are very appropriate. Members of the public invited into the church and lining these streets in nearly 100-degree heat as the motorcade passed at the airport. A final farewell from the state he loved, the state he made home, courtesy of the Arizona Air National Guard. Then, a final flight towards Washington, a trip McCain made so many times in 35 years representing the state in the nation's capital. On board, 18 family members among them, Cindy, the seven kids, and four grandkids.</s>VAUSE: Nick Watt reporting there. And there are two things about John McCain, you may not know, he is a huge Hemingway fan who's also extremely critical of Cuba's communist government. But as Patrick Oppmann reports, when McCain was asked to help save the home of his favorite writer, he answered the call even if that meant working with the regime he hated.</s>PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From his time as a naval aviator to his three decades in the U.S. Senate, John McCain was a cold warrior, a fierce critic of communism. Whether in the former Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, or Cuba.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), FORMER UNITED STATES SENATOR: This is a cruel, oppressive, repressive government that has condemned their people to poverty. You know that if -- why didn't cast to empty out his political prisoners, why doesn't he allow free election?</s>OPPMANN: Part of McCain's hatred of communism came no doubt from the mistreatment he suffered as the POW after being shot down during the Vietnam War. To keep saying while in solitary confinement, became recited to hold passages from his favorite book or his Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. A classic novel of heroism despite the odds.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you want to really know him, his favorite book is For Whom the Bell Tolls. The protagonist in that goes to fight end war. It's a hopeless cause, and yet he gets his life for it.</s>OPPMANN: Flash forward, decades and thousands of miles away in communist-run Cuba. Hemingway's home named the think of Finca Vigia where he lived for over 20 years was falling down. Hemingway left shortly after Fidel Castro took power. Just as the U.S. was about to impose a trade embargo on the islands. In his hurry, he abandoned first editions, manuscripts, and a house full of the writers most prized possessions. A treasure trove that was in danger of being lost forever.</s>MARY-JO ADAMS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE FINCA VEGIA FOUNDATION: It was mold and mildew. The papers here are original. They are priceless and they were in danger of demonic from the climate.</s>OPPMANN: In the 2000s, a group of Americans and Cubans joined forces to try and save Hemingway's house. But found the State Department under then-President George W. Bush wasn't issuing the travel licenses, their restorations needed to work on the island still under the U.S. trade embargo. Some of the Americans had heard that John McCain was a devoted fan of Ernest Hemingway's, and they hope the Senator could aid them in their quest to restore Hemingway's Havana home. Even though it meant that they would have to team up with the Cuban government, who John McCain had no love for. At a meeting with McCain, the restorationist found while his hatred of communism was still strong, so, was his admiration for Hemingway.</s>MARTY PETERSEN, FORMER BOARD MEMBER, FINCA VIGIA FOUNDATION: He detested the Cuban government but he loved our project. He didn't think that politics should get in the way of what we were trying to give up. And he agreed to call then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and ask her to basically call off her dogs and issue a license.</s>OPPMANN: The licenses came allowing American experts to work with their Cuban counterparts and save Hemingway's home and papers. Today, in Hemingway's house, the project that McCain helped continues. So that future generations can themselves be inspired by the famed writer's tales of courage and sacrifice. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.</s>VAUSE: We'll take a short break, when we come back, should priests report cases of child sex abuse admitted to them during confession. That's one of the recommendations from a rural Commission in Australia. But the Catholic Church there has said no. We'll explain why in a moment.