Leo XIV knows the reality of the Cuban people firsthand, says the leader of the Augustinians in Cuba

Pope Leo XIV “has very much inside his heart to the Cuban people” and knows firsthand the reality he faces, said the superior delegate of the Order of San Agustín on the island, P. José Alberto Escobar.

In dialogue with ACI Press, the priest indicated that the knowledge that the current Pope has about Cuba comes from his years as a prior of the order between 2001 and 2013, since it was during his management that the Augustinians returned to the island after almost four decades of absence.

Fr. Robert Prevost, name of the new Pontiff, visited Cuba in April 2008 and in February 2011. The first time “dedicated a lot of time to know the communities in Chambas (Diocese of the blind of Ávila) and in Puerto Padre (Diocese of Holguín).”

In addition, he shared “with the people in the same town of Chambas and other very simple communities of faith that make up this extensive parish community.” The same would do with the population of Puerto Padre and Holguín, and already in Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega “asked the Augustinians to begin that support in the formation of the Caba clergy with Augustinians who gave classes in the Major Seminary.”

This petition “would be completed with Augustinians who have been able to teach theology, philosophy or humanities to this day,” said the superior delegate in Cuba.

Fr. José Alberto Escobar said that in his 2011 visit, Fr. Premost focused “on presiding over the Assembly that the Augustinians have annually where we evaluate and program the main aspects that have to do with numerous community and personal life in Cuba”.

Therefore, Fr. Escobar assures that “Leo XIV knows the reality of the Cuban people first hand”, but “not only for his stage as a prior general in which he shared with the people of our parishes, his joys, concerns, fears or reveals”, but also “listening, visiting, sharing in their homes and even staying in their homes.”

Pope Leo XIV “has lived the mission since his youth and has always been very simple and authentic in the personal relationships with whom” has maintained interest in knowing what the life of the Church is like in the Church in Cuba and its Augustinian brothers. “

He said that even when he was already a bishop of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo, he had the opportunity to talk with Mons. Premost twice and “my impression is that he has very inside his heart to the Cuban people.”

“He is a pastor who collaborates with our good shepherd so this knowledge of first hand and this love is already present will be for the good of the Church and therefore also of Cuba. With so many faithful of the Church that they know him, with all our Augustinian brothers his presence and ministry infuses us an immense joy and hope in Cuba. This is already a fact,” he said.

The history of the order of San Agustín in Cuba

The Order of San Agustín arrived on the island in 1608 with a community that was established in Havana and that was growing with pastoral works in chapels and churches. To this expansion on the island would also contribute the religious who arrived from the United States in 1889.

However, in 1959 Fidel Castro takes power and Cuba is subject to a communist regime. “In 1961 all religious are expelled along with the vast majority of priests in the country, as a consequence of disagreements with the new political regime,” said Fr. Escobar.

Of the Augustinians, the Government only allowed Fr. Juan McKniff, current servant of God, who made “an exceptional ecclesial and social work in the church of the Holy Christ of the Good Journey. In 1968 he requested to leave temporarily for health reasons, the political authorities are granted and subsequently change their minds and will never let him return”.

But in November 2006 the Order of San Agustín would return to Cuba with a community that would be installed in the Diocese of Ciego de Ávila.

In statements a Vatican Newsthe bishop of Holguín, Mons. Emilio Aranguren, said that it all started in 2005 when Cardinal Jaime Ortega met Fray Robert Prevost, then a prior general of the Order. Both Cuban leaders asked him to return to Cuba, which happened the following year.

Fr. Escobar said that in 2005 “two Augustinians come for two months to a Cienfuegos mission experience. In that year, F, Robert F. Prevost, current Pope Leo XIV, who, with his advice, deciduously boost that the order returns to Cuba.”

“In 2008, two more communities would open, one was in the parish of San José de Puerto Padre in Las Tunas and another in Tarará in Havana. In 2011, by express request of Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the Augustinians of Havana we return again the parish of the Holy Christ of the Good Journey in Havana Vieja,” he added.

The superior delegate indicated that the communities of Agustinos in Cuba – for which brothers from other parts of America, Europe, Asia and Africa have passed – “have been under the jurisdiction of the general curia until 2018, therefore, until 2013”, Father Prevost “has been very close to the day -to -day life of our life and apostolate”.

Thus, now the work of the Augustinians is “focused on two fields: the attention of parishes inside the island or in Havana and a very important teaching work mainly with the support of the Major Seminary in Havana”, as well as the Institute of Humanities P. Félix Varela.

The challenges of the order of San Agustín in Cuba

Fr. Escobar indicated that since his return in 2006 the order “has had as the sole objective to be at the service of the Church.”

“We have avoided any kind of claims that will hinder or hinder this service to such a fragile church in regard to the number of priests, material resources or what in itself involves a life in the conditions that our people have to face,” he said.

The Augustinian priest said that almost 20 years after the return there are “challenges that are still maintained and others that have varied.”

He indicated that the first of all is “being faithful to the Gospel and our charisma as Augustinians in the midst of a social and political context marked by communism and what this means as a vision of social and anthropological life.”

Likewise, “celebrating a Eucharist in the interior of the country in ruinous temples, carrying the word, promoting projects that help the integral development of the person, talking about peace or social justice entails much effort and there are no obvious or striking results. This has not changed.”

“There is a church that still needs us. We share all the social and political challenges that the people of Cuba have faced and currently faces with greater or lesser intensity: fear of expressing themselves freely by reprisals, infiltrated by state security, absence of the possibility of choosing other forms of government.”

Likewise, “food or medication deficiencies, mass exodus of the population that emigrates looking for a better and more life currently the deterioration of everything that depends on the State and the increase in social differences where the opulence of a few and the poverty of many are seen.”

Fr. Escobar said that living in Cuba “means inculturating us in this town and culture that have tried to monopolize those who promote this type of society and currently govern.” “It is a challenge to remain in this Church in these circumstances and we believe that the Lord calls us to give life for his church in this reality,” he said.