The latest problem to come out of Cuba’s economic crisis is a wheat flour shortage. Besides all the usual wheat flour products the population can no longer access, the shortage means Communion hosts aren’t being made any more. “We inform all the dioceses that there are no longer hosts for sale,” the St. Teresa Discalced Read more
Cuba held a rare referendum on Sunday on an unusually controversial law — a government-backed “family law” code that would allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt, as well as outlining the rights of children and grandparents. Cuba holds parliamentary elections every two years, though no party other than the Communist is allowed, but seldom Read more
In Cuba, where communism and religion live uneasily side by side, there is a city where it is no longer strange to see a priest walk down the street in a white cassock followed by enthusiastic greetings of “Good day, Father!” A small order of Catholic clergy has become a beloved and indispensable part of Read more
Catholic youth in Cuba have now made it possible for the country to get its first Catholic radio station in Cuba to broadcast online 24 hours a day. “Radio El Sonido de la Esperanza” of the Catholic Youth Network (RCJ) will now spread the Church’s message through the internet. It is “an online and permanent Read more
Many adjectives describe Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who died last week: father, brother, cardinal of Cuban youth, voice of Cuba’s poor, Cuban bridge to the US, accomplished pianist. He “was an important, and at the same time, controversial man of the church, who played a critical role in gaining ‘more spaces’ so that the Catholic Church Read more
The first Catholic church built since the 1959 Cuban revolution opened on Saturday. “To see this finished is like coming out of the night into the day,” Fr. Cirilo Castro, the Cuban priest who oversaw construction of the church says. “We knew it would happen one day.” Read more
Cubans should reject the redefinition of marriage. They should find “other legal ways” to protect gay unions, Cuban archbishop Dionisio Garcia says. Garcia was responding to efforts made by Cuban dictator Raúl Castro’s daughter Mariela, who is pressing to have gay marriage legalised in Cuba. This means marriage will need to be legally redefined. Castro Read more
Twenty priests were among the 113 people killed when a plane crashed outside Havana last Friday. The evangelical pastors were all from the Nazarene Church in the eastern region of Cuba, Maite Quesada. They had been at a meeting in Havana and were returning to the province of Holguin when the crash occurred. According to Read more
In his classic 1986 study of mainstream American media’s coverage of natural disaster reporting around the world, William C. Adams concluded that the death of one Italian equalled that of three Romanians, nine Latin Americans, 11 Middle Easterners or 12 Asians. Unsurprisingly, he found the media weighted in favour of Western interests. Reporting also showed Read more
A new Catholic church in Cuba is being built – the first for 60 years. Funding for the church is being donated by a parish in Florida, USA. Father Ramon Hernandez, who with his parishioners bankrolled the project, says he is looking forward to the inauguration Mass taking place early next year. Hernandez, who comes Read more