This is a week when Americans will celebrate Pope Francis, and no one in any of the cities that he will visit appears to be holding back in their preparations to turn his arrival into a big party for the pontiff. Republicans and Democrats will hope to make hay from associating some of their issues with his advocacy (abortion versus climate change and income inequality), but the bottom line is about the goodwill and the message of hope this much-respected man of faith will spread wherever he goes. But amid the justified hoopla, there is at least one point on which those who admire the pope have reason to be disappointed. In his visit to Cuba this week before coming to the United States, the Pope did not insist on meeting any dissidents. The one opportunity for a brief greeting from the Pope to members of the Ladies in White, a courageous group of relatives of jailed dissidents was prevented by their address by Cuban authorities. This is deeply unfortunate. If, like the Obama administration, the Vatican is so determined to push forward with détente with one of the last vestiges of Communist tyranny on the planet that it is willing to sacrifice dissidents, the Pope is squandering an opportunity to rally the Cuban people to the cause of freedom and to undermine the tyrants that oppress them.

The papal mass that was celebrated in Havana was an important symbolic moment for Cubans who have suffered for more than half a century under the despotism of the Castro regime. His message of sympathy and courage to persevere under difficult circumstances was clearly understood as a veiled rebuke for the Cuban government. But the Pope was cautious not to go any further. And he seemed eager to obey the regime’s dictates by avoiding any actual sit down meetings with dissidents, even as he lavished attention on government leaders as well as retired dictator Fidel Castro.

There are precedents for this decision. Both Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II chose not to meet dissidents during their visits to Cuba. There is an argument to be made that such caution makes sense as the church may be able to do more good by not antagonizing the Communists than if they defied them. But while that may have made sense in the past, it may no longer be valid.

The Communists need the West more than the West needs Havana these days. Deprived of their Soviet patron and with the leftist government of Venezuela no longer flush with oil cash to hand out to its friends, the Castros needed a lifeline. But rather than extract tangible concessions from Cuba on human rights, the Obama administration got nothing in exchange for its decision to resume diplomatic relations and end the embargo. Though it could be said that 50 years of boycott accomplished little, Obama’s concessions brought nothing from the Castros. In that sense, the opening to Havana appears to be just as much a failure as the embargo. The only difference — except for those U.S. businesses and the communist government that hopes to profit from the new relationship — is that the U.S. is now complicit in the regime’s oppression rather than opposing it.

The same can now be said to a certain extent for the Vatican. Like Obama, Pope Francis had more leverage to extract concessions on freedom from the Castros than he thought. The papal visit meant a lot to the Communists who could have been made to pay for it in measures that might make life easier for the Cuban people. Let’s hope that the Pope’s influence and the power of his message will, like Pope John Paul II’s stand for freedom against Soviet tyranny, will make a difference. But for now, it must be said that his failure to meet with dissidents or to make some statement of support for them is a disappointment for those of us who look to the church as a bulwark for the cause of freedom against totalitarianism.