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Cuba’s communist Government is on the brink of permitting the building of the first new Catholic church in the country since the Marxist revolution of 1959.
The church will be built in country’s second city, Santiago de Cuba.
Catholics in the city have been attending Mass in the street since Hurricane Sandy destroyed their previous ramshackle church.
Part of the new church will be built from the steel beams of the stage on which Pope Benedict XVI said Mass when he visited Havana in 2012.
The project will be funded in part by St Lawrence Parish in Tampa, Florida, most of whose members are Cuban exiles or descendants of exiles.
One final permit is required out of five before construction can begin.
The Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, Dionisio Garcia Ibanez, told the BBC: “I think it’s not only about improving attitudes to the Catholic Church, but to Churches in general.
“I think there’s a better understanding of religious affairs, so we hope it won’t only be this church that we build. We hope there’ll be more.”
He also cited growing ties between Cuba and socialist yet devout nations like Venezuela for the improved state outlook towards the Church.
In the early years after Fidel Castro became president, many church properties were confiscated by the Cuban government.
Since then, Catholics and other Christians have developed networks of “house churches” where there are not proper church buildings available.
Believers would baptise their children in secret or attend Mass surreptitiously in distant neighbourhoods
Up to now, the Catholic Church in Cuba was only permitted to renovate existing properties or rebuild where old ones collapsed.
Once officially atheist, Cuba is now a secular state.
Now even Communist Party members now practice their religion openly.
Sixty per cent of Cuba’s population is Catholic, but only a fraction practises the faith.
Sources
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