Cuba Christ Catholic

Cuba to Build Its First Catholic Church in Over 50 Years

Cuba Christ Catholic

Over 5 decades after the nation outlawed religious practice, a community in Tampa has helped raise the funds necessary to build Cuba’s first Catholic church.

With the help of the St. Lawrence Catholic Church of Tampa, the first Catholic Church in Cuba in the last 55 years since the start of Communism is being constructed. After raising half of the planned budget from donations, the Cuban government finally approved the construction. The Tampa church raised $45,000 of the $90,000 from parishioners with four special collections; the remaining amount will hopefully be raised from six additional donation requests.

The Improving Relations Between Cuba and Catholicism

With the installation of Communism in 1959, Cuba outlawed any religious practice by announcing the country an atheist nation. Fidel Castro’s government confiscated many church properties. However, the relations between Catholicism and Cuba have vastly improved over the last five decades, particularly within the last twenty years. First, the visitation by Pope John Paul II in 1998 and the declaration of Christmas as a national holiday. Years later, Pope Benedict XVI visited the country over three days. Finally, with the approval of this church, Catholicism has made great strides in the communist country. However, the process was not easy, and Catholics fought for the new religious building over the course of four years. Despite the lack of a structure, mass has already been held on the property in Sandino, which is a municipality within the far western province of Cuba.

Despite the deeply communist government, the first Cuban Catholic Church is finally being constructed after over five decades. The residents finally received approval from the government after collecting $45,000 from parishioners of the St. Lawrence Catholic Church of Tampa. So far hey have raised only half of the necessary funds for the complete budget, but that was sufficient to start building.

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