In a Cuba in crisis, the social role of the Churches is strengthening

Twice a week, several dozen Cubans wait in front of the Santa Cruz de Jerusalem Catholic Church in Havana, hoping to obtain free medicines, while health services on the island continue to deteriorate.

Cuba has been going through a serious economic crisis for six years under the combined effects of a strengthening of American sanctions and the structural weaknesses of its centralized economy.

The 9.6 million inhabitants are suffering power cuts, shortages of food and medicine, and high inflation. The situation has gotten even worse with the restrictions on oil imports imposed by Washington since January.

In this context, the Churches, long marginalized by the communist government, represent a lifeline for part of the population while the State is no longer able to meet needs.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, in front of the Santa Cruz Church in Jerusalem, the distribution of medicines begins at 9:30 a.m., according to the order of arrival of the beneficiaries, who must present a prescription. The medicines come from donations from Franciscan congregations and lay people living abroad.

Juana Emilia Zamora, a 71-year-old retiree, came because "there are no (the medications she needs) in the state pharmacy" near her home.

“The other possibility is to resort to people who sell them (on the black market), but the prices are very high,” says the septuagenarian who receives a pension of 2,000 pesos (around 4 dollars).

When the parish began distributing free medicine in 2022, one or two people came every week asking for help, remembers Gretel Agrelo, a layperson in the parish.

But now up to 300 people, especially elderly people, rely on the Church. “The situation has gotten worse” and “we don’t have enough” medicines to meet demand, laments the parish assistant.

Brother Luis Pernas, one of the Franciscan priests of the church, deplores that a growing number of Cubans find themselves "deprived of the minimum to live", against a backdrop of increasing poverty and inequalities.

- Complicated relationship -

In Cuba, the Catholic Church has long maintained a complicated relationship with the socialist revolution led by Fidel Castro: in 1961, its social works were confiscated by the State, anxious to have control over education and health.

The end of state atheism in the 1990s and economic crises have, however, strengthened the social prerogatives of Catholic institutions over the years. Not to mention the role of mediator played for a long time by the Vatican between Havana and Washington.

It is also the Catholic Church and its charitable NGO Caritas which were tasked by Washington with distributing 9 million dollars