Grassroots ‘Mission Houses’ are spreading the faith in Cuba
How the Catholic Church is spreading the word in Cuba, which not that long ago was officially atheist.
Posted on Saturday, 03.31.12
By MIMI WHITEFIELD [email protected]
SANTIAGO, Cuba -- On Saturday nights, the living-room furniture in a third-floor apartment gets pushed to the back of the room and out come the benches, altar table and a large crucifix. Soon the priest will arrive.
Because District Jose Marti, the massive Soviet-style housing complex where the apartment is located was built after the revolution — Cuba was still an atheist state — no one thought to leave space for a church that could serve the thousands of residents.
But as part of the Catholic Church’s Casa de Misión (Mission House) program, Reinaldo Sang Sarabia has been inviting friends and neighbors into his home for nearly 10 years to attend Mass, catechism classes and other religious events.
In this country that was officially atheist from 1962 until 1992 and expelled priests in the early 1960s, there is a huge shortage of churches — and priests. A seminary that opened last year, one of the fruits of a wider opening toward the church that began after Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1998, will help.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/25/2724658/grassroots-mission-houses-are.html
