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 Carmelite Monastery in Havana announced last week.

"We have been working with the little flour that was left and what was in reserve has already run out.

"We hope and trust in the Lord that we can resume work soon, and once we have enough to distribute to all the dioceses, we will notify you."

In the Catholic Church, Communion hosts may be made only from wheat flour, the Redemptionis Sacramentum instruction says.

"It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.

"It is a grave abuse to introduce other substances, such as fruit or sugar or honey, into the bread for confecting the Eucharist."

Cuba's wheat flour stocks have been depleting for several months.

At the end of August, the Cuban Ministry of Domestic Trade acknowledged "the difficulties for importing wheat" had worsened.

This was attributed to "the tightening of the blockade, the current international logistics crisis, and the country's financial limitations."

The US trade embargo of Cuba does not include food products.

Last month Guantánamo Food Industry director Albis Hernández Díaz said they had ended the week with 60,000 fewer units of bread, affecting homes in the municipalities of Guantánamo, Baracoa and El Salvador.

There is also a shortage of fuel for the bread ovens as well as blackouts, which have been ongoing since Hurricane Ian hit Cuba in September.

"The quality of the bread has been affected by the type of flour available, with less fine grains and loaded with bran or wheat husks, and the use of national yeast with low fermentation power, components that affect the flavour and colour of the bread and, in addition, they slow down the production process," Díaz said.

Source

• Catholic News Agency

Cuba holds parliamentary elections every two years, though no party other than the Communist is allowed, but seldom has it held referendums on specific laws.

And seldom has an officially backed measure met as much open criticism as the family law of more than 400 articles, which has been questioned by many members of the island's increasingly vocal evangelical community.

The sweeping code would also allow surrogate pregnancies, broader rights for grandparents regarding grandchildren, protection of the elderly and measures against gender violence.

Read More

A small order of Catholic clergy has become a beloved and indispensable part of the community in Placetas, offering survival essentials to its economically devastated population of about 40,000 souls.

The priests have become, in part, a surrogate for the government, which in Cuba has political control over just about every aspect of life — though in practice it cannot always deliver where it is needed most.

From Placetas, four French priests have set up three-day care centres, five soup kitchens, an after-school centre, a boarding school and an old-age home serving about 70,000 people of the larger district in the centre of the island nation.

"In Cuba, the Church is… putting a foot in the door so that it stays open," smiled 38-year-old Jean Pichon, one of the four clerics who moved to Placetas 15 years ago.

But he insisted "the idea is not to convert people or to seek a more prominent role, but truly to help."

‘No more medicine'

The beige-walled church on one of the town's squares has become a popular gathering spot for members of the community.

On Thursdays, the priests meet youngsters from Placetas on a field near the church to play football.

On the same block, a soup kitchen feeds the hungry twice a week, a library is open to all and, crucially for many, a makeshift pharmacy dispenses free medications that the priests get from Europe.

These are all services that fall under the purview of Cuba's one-party state.

But the government in Havana has recently moved to reduce Cubans' reliance on free essential services — announcing it will cut subsidies for food and other basics in a bid to entice people into the workplace and revitalize the economy.

The country is battling its worst economic crisis in 30 years, fueled by six decades of American sanctions and the collapse of its critical tourism sector due to the coronavirus epidemic.

"I am 53 and this is the worst (time) I've ever experienced," said Tania Perez, who in non-pandemic times rents out a room to tourists in Placetas and relies heavily on the medicines the priests provide.

"My mother has only 20 days' worth of pills left and her medicine cannot be found. Without it, she cannot walk. Me, I suffer from lupus and I have no more medicine," Perez said.

Providing support

Every Wednesday, a van comes with fresh supplies for the Placetas pharmacy. The night before, some people sleep outside to make sure they can get what they need.

In smaller towns nearby, people tell of having to wait four days in a queue for medicine.

In such difficult times, the Church "could not and did not want to remain on the sidelines," said Arturo Gonzalez Amador, bishop of Santa Clara — the capital of Villa Clara province, where Placetas is located.

He too was quick to stress that the Church was "not creating a parallel structure" to the state, saying: "We are providing support."

Mistrust and fear

"At first, there was a lot of mistrust" from the authorities, "maybe even a bit of fear," said Pichon of the Church's growing presence.

After the revolution, the new communist state in 1961 seized the assets of the Catholic Church, including schools and clinics.

More than 130 priests were expelled.

The country was atheist until 1992 when it amended its laws to become officially secular. However, a government office of religious affairs still regulates anything to do with worship.

Today, the country of 11.2 million has only 300 Catholic priests — half of them foreign.

According to Church estimates, 60 per cent of Cubans are baptized — but only two per cent attend Mass.

Practising Catholics are still prohibited from working for certain government ministries in a country where the state is the main employer. Continue reading

• Katell Abiven
• Image: 24 Matins

"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 broadcaster of various radio programs produced by the Church of Cuba and other parts of the world, according to a grid that we are still working on", Rubén de la Trinidad, founder and one of the directors of the Catholic Youth Network, told Inter Press Service, according to Fides. Read more

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 in Cuba could exercise her mission of evangelisation within a Marxist nation," says one of Ortega's frequent visitors, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami.

"He was key to receiving the visit of three popes and negotiating the freedom of political prisoners. May he rest in peace."

Ortega (82), who was Havana's retired archbishop, died on 26 July.

Many visitors, including various US bishops, visited and prayed by his bedside during his last days.

Wenski, who was among them, says Ortega was "a dedicated man of the church and an exemplary Cuban".

After Fidel Castro's communist revolution in 1959, he was jailed for eight months as a suspected opponent of the regime.

He was a leading spokesman for Cuban Catholics on national and international issues during his 35 years as archbishop.

Like popes St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, Ortega took the view that the US economic blockade was keeping thousands of people poor while doing little to pressure the Cuban government to expand freedoms and human rights.

As archbishop, he hand-delivered private messages from Pope Francis to then US president Barack Obama and Fidel Castro's brother and successor, Raul Castro, urging them to put aside Cold War-era mistrust and forge a new relationship between the United States and Cuba.

He also used every opportunity possible to plead with the US government to end the blockade. Eventually political tensions thawed and more contact between Cuba and the US recommenced.

Ortega also negotiated with the government for church buildings to be restored and reopened, and this year saw a new Catholic church opened - the first to be built since 1959.

Not everyone appreciated Ortega however.

Some Cubans in exile say he didn't do enough to denounce the island's government.

Some even singled out the date of his death - on the anniversary of an important rebellion that led to the overthrow of Cuba's former government - as proof that he was favourable to the government.

However, Puerto Rico's Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves says although Ortega was "misunderstood" by Cubans in exile, "he was much loved by the faithful Catholics in Cuba."

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• National Catholic Reporter
• CNN
• Image: Crux Now

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 has suggested by replacing the terms "man and woman" with "two people."

The redefinition of marriage has now been approved by the National Assembly and is currently undergoing a popular consultation.

However, Garcia says Cubans should find "other legal ways" to protect gay unions that don't include changing the "definition of an institution of the natural order, such as marriage."

Garcia says redefining the institution of marriage in the constitution "worries many."

This is because it could lead to the legalisation of gay marriage, or adoption by same-sex couples, "depriving them from birth of having a mother or a father."

He also says the constitutional re-definition of marriage could lead to a change in the content of what children are taught in schools.

The new definition of marriage being a ‘voluntary and consensual union between two people' is not correct, Garcia says.

He points out that human beings are either "men or women," and each sex has its own "particularities and genetic, physical, biological and psychological differences, in such a way that they complement each other."

This complementarity is expressed in a "unique and singular way" in marriage, Garcia notes.

To ignore "what has been given to us by nature or to go against the laws and process inscribed even genetically in our being carries regrettable consequences," that can be either immediate or manifest themselves over the years, he says.

Source

• Crux Now
• Rappler
• Image: Catholic Herald

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 the BBC, the 40-year old Boeing 737 had been inspected last November.

The Mexico Civil Aviation Authority said the six crew members on board the flight were Mexican nationals.

National leaders sent condolences to the victims and their families, releasing public statements on Friday. Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness was among the first to tweet about the situation, releasing a Friday call for prayer.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to our Caribbean neighbours in Cuba after a Boeing 737 passenger jet crashed this afternoon at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport in Cuba," he wrote. "We pray for the safety of the passengers and flight crew."

Three women survived the fireball crash. They are seriously injured.

National leaders sent condolences to the victims and their families.

Source

• Newsweek
• Euronews
• Skynews
• Image: Global News

Unsurprisingly, he found the media weighted in favour of Western interests.

Reporting also showed no relationship between disaster severity and media coverage. We might ask how much has changed? Who counts?

Hurricane Harvey is certainly worthy of media attention. It dominated the mediascape.

At the same time however, the South Asian floods barely rated - and these killed over 1200 people, putting a third of Bangladesh under water and negatively affecting at least two and a half million people.

We can observe the same of Hurricane Irma.

Most of the mainstream media's hurricane reportage of the affected region has focused on the US. Much concern was for Florida, in the projected path of the cyclone, even as it devastated Caribbean islands with Category 5 fury (and to date the greatest death toll).

After two days reporting Irma, the media 'discovered' the largish island between the Lesser Antilles and the Florida Keys: Cuba.

But an important point appears to have escaped the media's attention: Cuba is consistently well-prepared for such storms. It wins plaudits from the United Nations and Oxfam for its hurricane response.

First, Cubans are well educated on hurricane risk; this instruction begins early in school and continues. Consequently, citizens know how to prepare for, and respond to, such emergencies.

Second, before hurricanes make landfall, dedicated teams organised at the community level take to the streets to remove or secure debris.

Third, plans and procedures for evacuation are well coordinated between centralised government and local communities. Cuba's hurricane plan does not rely on individuals arranging their own shelter or evacuation.

Continue reading

• Dr Steve Matthewman is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland.
• Dr Scott Poynting is Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University.

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 from Cuba, said he used to celebrate Mass in "churches hidden in the homes of faithful families".

He left Cuba in the 1980s.

The motivation for his parish helping pay for the church was to create a greater spiritual connection between Hernandez's parish of Tampa, Florida, and Cuba.

The new church will be in Sandino, in the west of Cuba. It will be called the Parish of Divine Mercy of Sandino.

It will be able to seat 200 people.

Hernandez says Cuba is changing from the days of Fidel Castro's communist era.

The new church and a refurbished synagogue in Havana are evidence of Cuba's progress in religious freedom, he says.

Source

• Crux
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Aleteia

The late Cuban leader had a volatile connection with the Catholic church.

Major changes to Cuba's one-party Communist system are predicted.

Castro's brother, Raul, has led Cuba since 2006 when illness forced Fidel to retire.

He has released dozens of political prisoners under deals with the United States and the Roman Catholic Church.

Although Raul Castro has done little more for Catholics, Enrique Pumar, says Fidels's death could encourage the church to take a more proactive role in Cuba.

Pumar is head of the Sociology Department at Catholic University of America and has studied the Catholic Church in Cuba.

This is definitely an opportunity," Pumar said.

"Raúl is going to be more open to the church. But this is going to happen gradually. That's the way change takes place in Cuba."

Another commentator, Ted Henken, who is a Baruch College Latino studies professor and Cuba scholar says church leaders could now "hope to reap further gains in a post-Fidel Cuba.

"The Catholic Church has very wisely — politically, strategically — positioned itself for this day," he said.

Pumar says the church could push for parochial schools to be more accepted in Cuba. At present they are restricted.

The church could also actively participate in brokering discussions between civil society and state leaders, he said.

"A lot of people recognize this is not going to be settled on any battleground," Pumar said. "There has to be some form of conversation and negotiation."

Source

• Reuters
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Slate

Pope Francis's condolence message to Raul Castro expressed his "sentiments of grief". He promised to pray for Fidel.

Jesuit-educated, Fidel Castro followed a Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Believing the Church was a state enemy, he declared Cuba an atheist state.

He seized all Cuba's church-run schools, shut down Church publications and expelled numerous priests.

Many were sent to "re-education camps".

He was rumoured to have been excommunicated by Pope John XXIII in 1962.

The reasons for this are supposed to be for affiliating with the Communist Part of Cuba, preaching communism and supporting a communist government.

Pius XII's "Decree against Communism" is said to have provided the basis for the excommunication.

Whether Castro was excommunicated has never been confirmed.

He did, however, meet three Popes.

They were St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

All three helped broker the restoration of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba.

This repaired a breakdown between the countries' relationship that began when the US embargoed exports to Cuba after Castro nationalised American-owned Cuban oil refineries without compensation.

The only goods the US would trade were except for food and medicine.

Pope Francis clinched the reconciliation last year.

Like Castro, Francis often speaks out against unregulated capitalism.

Fidel Castro believed Christianity and revolutionary socialism were compatible beliefs.

"If people call me Christian, not from the standpoint of religion but from the standpoint of social vision, I declare that I am a Christian," he said in 2006.

Source:

• Reuters
• Herald Malaysia Online
• USA Today
• The Daily Caller
• BBC News
• Wikipedia
• Image: The Telegraph

The middle-aged woman in the black dress behind the counter inspected me. My stomach sank. How could she know that I needed a ticket so that I could fulfill a sacred promise my mother had made 22 years earlier? Traveling in communist Cuba was a bureaucratic nightmare, tickets taking weeks or months to obtain, if one could get them at all. What's more, I had no ID and was suspiciously dressed. I felt certain she had heard every sob story ever concocted.

It all came flooding out: How a childhood condition had required me to have leg surgery, and my worried mother had sworn that we would visit Cuba's patron saint—Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre—upon my recovery. But we never got to the shrine outside Santiago that houses the figurine.

Shortly before my illness, the communist revolution had erupted, sending many of my high school friends to jail. My mother knew I would be next, so she arranged asylum for me in America, where I would attend Catholic University, go on to a career in international banking, and become a collector of Cuban memorabilia.

On this trip I had only a few precious days in Cuba. How could I explain how much this simple trip meant, how I had clung to the idea of seeing Our Lady of Charity for more than two decades?

I don't know how much the woman behind the counter heard, but she understood. "I have a son in Milwaukee," was all she murmured. She appreciated the pain of exile and dislocation, the importance of faith. She knew! In a moment a ticket miraculously appeared. I will never forget her smile and kindness. Continue reading

Sources

• Emilio Cueto, as told to John F. Ross in Smithsonian Journeys Quarterly
• Image: Vatican Radio

The two leaders met for 135 minutes in Cuba on February 12.

It was the first meeting of this kind for nearly 1000 years.

A joint statement was issued, in which Francis and Kirill declared: "We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide all our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world."

"We urge Catholics and Orthodox in all countries to learn to live together in peace and love, and to be 'in harmony with one another'," they stated.

Pope Francis said he and Kirill spoke freely at the meeting.

The Pontiff said the discussions were tantamount to "a conversation of brothers", where each "spoke with frankness" about their worries and concerns.

Later, Francis also appeared to downplay some of the more strongly worded sections of the joint statement, saying: "It is not a political declaration . . . it is a pastoral declaration."

The 30-paragraph statement dealt with several controversial political issues, including: the continuing violence in Ukraine; persecution of Christians in the Middle East; issues of marriage and family life; and the practices of abortion and euthanasia.

At the beginning of their declaration, the Christian leaders wrote that they hope their meeting may be an example to the world.

Speaking of the changes facing humanity, Francis and Kirill wrote: "Human civilisation has entered into a period of epochal change."

"Our Christian conscience and our pastoral responsibility compel us not to remain passive in the face of challenges requiring a shared response," they stated.

The statement devoted six paragraphs to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, calling on the international community "to act urgently" to prevent even more Christians from fleeing the region.

It also mentioned the violence in Iraq and Syria, and strongly denounced terrorism and the use of religion to justify violence.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Full text: Statement by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill
• The Guardian
• Image: Reuters

The meeting, which is expected to take two hours, will take place when the Pope is en route to Mexico, the Vatican announced.

A statement from the Vatican and the Moscow patriarchate noted that the meeting will mark an important stage in relations between the two churches.

According to a Reuters report, Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church said the meeting is taking place because of the need for a joint response to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Metropolitan Hilarion said that long-standing differences between the two churches remain, most notably a row over the status of the Uniate Church, in Ukraine.

But he said these differences were being put aside so that Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis could come together on the issue of persecution of Christians.

"The situation shaping up today in the Middle East, in North and Central Africa, and in some other regions where extremists are carrying out a genuine genocide of the Christian population, demands urgent measures and an even closer cooperation between the Christian churches," Hilarion said.

"We need to put aside internal disagreements at this tragic time and join efforts to save Christians in the regions where they are subject to the most atrocious persecution."

Hilarion said the first-ever meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches would not take place in Europe because Patriarch Kirill had objected to such a venue from the very beginning.

"Because it is namely Europe with which this tragic history of divisions and conflicts among Christians is linked," Hilarion said.

The meeting between the Pope and Patriarch Kirill will come only months before the expected opening in June of the first synod meeting of the various Orthodox churches in more than a thousand years.

This synod will be in Crete.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Reuters
• Image: Asia News

The Pontiff told the crowd that "service is never ideological".

Speaking in a plaza dominated by a towering portrait of revolutionary Che Guevara, the Pope told the crowd they should "serve people, not ideas".

He added that the faithful "are called by virtue of our Christian vocation to that service which truly serves, and to help one another and not to be tempted by a 'service' which is really 'self-serving'".

Francis added: "There is a way to go about serving which is interested in only helping 'my people', in the name of 'our people'," he said.

"This service always leaves 'your people' outside, and gives rise to a dynamic of exclusion."

His words appear to take aim at President Raul Castro and the communist regime which many Cubans still complain have control over almost every aspect of life.

Anyone who steps out of line or is perceived as being disloyal in Cuba is at risk of losing their benefits.

But even as the Pope spoke, reports emerged that dozens of activists were being arrested.

Hundreds of thousands of people had turned out to watch the Pontiff's service this morning, including the current President Castro and the president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Later that day, the Pope met with Fidel Castro and his wife and family.

The Pontiff presented the former president, 89,

The Pontiff presented the former president, 89, with copies of "Laudato Si'" and "Evangelii Gaudium" as well as a book on happiness and the spiritual life by Italian priest Fr Alexandro Pronzato.

Castro, the nation's former dictator, gave Francis a collection of his own conversations about religion with Brazilian cleric Frei Betto.

Vatican spokesman Fr Frederico Lombardi, SJ, said the half hour meeting had been a "very informal conversation".

Sources

• Daily Mail
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Telesurtv

In their old age, however, they have brought the Church in from the cold and are gracious and experienced hosts for regular papal visits.

When Pope Francis lands in Cuba on Sept. 19, he will be the third pontiff in a row to visit the Communist-run island.

His three-night stay highlights the new relationship between Church and state in Cuba and a marked softening of the Castros' stance toward the religion they grew up with and then fought.

In return, the Church has become less confrontational and it played a major role in securing last year's rapprochement between Cuba and the United States.

It still wants the return of Church properties occupied after the revolution but it has adopted a strategy of maintaining a fluid dialogue with the government rather than risking conflict.

Fidel Castro, 89 years old and retired, has repeatedly praised Christian values and counts as a close friend the Brazilian priest and intellectual Frei Betto.

Raul Castro, 84 and his brother's successor as president, has gone even further, opening talks with Church leaders inside Cuba and making concessions such as freeing dozens of political prisoners and allowing religious processions. Continue reading

Mr Castro and his brother Fidel suppressed the church in communist Cuba for more than half a century.

President Raul Castro had a private meeting with the Pope in Rome on Monday.

He thanked the Pope for his mediation role in the recent thawing of relations between Cuba and the United States.

Afterwards, Mr Castro revealed that he admires the Pope as a champion of the poor, and that he reads all of his speeches.

He said: "If the Pope continues to talk as he does, sooner or later I will start praying again and return to the Catholic Church - I am not kidding."

"When the Pope goes to Cuba in September, I promise to go to all his Masses, and with satisfaction," he said.

Continue reading

The president's comments came, Thursday, on a nationally televised address.

Obama said Pope Francis wrote to both Cuban president Raul Castro and himself urging them to find a way to resolve Cuba's imprisonment of US citizen Alan Gross.

"His Holiness Pope Francis issued a personal appeal to me and to Cuban President Raul Castro urging us to resolve Alan's case," Obama said.

Later in the address, Obama thanked Francis for his example.

"In particular," Obama said, "I want to thank His Holiness Pope Francis, whose moral example shows us we should work for the world as it should be instead of accepting it as it is."

Pope Francis offered his congratulations to the two governments.

A statement from the Vatican Secretariat of State confirmed, in recent months, the Holy Father had written to both leaders during them to "resolve humanitarian questions of common interest".

In October, the Holy See also met with delegations from both countries in the Vatican, providing "its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue".

The communique says the Holy See will continue to offer support for initiatives on the path of both countries to strengthen bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens.

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• NCR
• Image: America Economia

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

• The Tablet
• BBC
• Image: Christian Science Monitor