CUBA

According to Cuba’s 2020 census, 61.7 percent of the population identifies as Christian; they are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Membership in Protestant churches is estimated at around 5 percent. According to the census, 17.2 percent identify as agnostic, 3.9 percent as atheist, and 16.7 as spiritist/occultic.

Also popular is Santería, a blend of Catholicism and traditional African – specifically Yoruba – spiritist/occultic religion.

The primary source of persecution for Cuban Christians is the ruling Cuban Communist Party (CCP).

Cuba maintains a one-party system with no independent judiciary.

The ruling Cuban Communist Party exerts tight control over all religious activity. All churches are required by law to register with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), a process which is both arbitrary and political.

Registered churches – which are mostly Catholic and members of the Cuban Council of Churches (CIC) – are tightly controlled through the Office of Religious Affairs (ORA), which works out of the MoJ. The ORA is authorised to supervise gatherings, restrict activities, and limit the number of attendees.

The mostly Protestant and evangelical churches that are not registered with the CCP and not members of CIC, suffer harassment, intimidation, and persecution.

While current repression and persecution is nothing like the persecution suffered during the Cold War era, persecution has escalated markedly since the February 2019 constitutional referendum which saw evangelicals deemed “counter-revolutionaries”.

Cubans went to the polls on Sunday 24 February 2019 to vote in a referendum on the new constitution which, despite introducing modest reforms, enshrines socialism, further weakens religious freedom, and removes the definition of marriage thereby paving the way for same-sex marriage.

Individual churches and pastors came under serious pressure to instruct their congregations to vote “YES”.

Instead, in a display of unprecedented unity, Cuban churches led a strong campaign opposing changes to the definition of marriage. It was a very courageous move, especially as “NO” voters were being vilified in the state-controlled media as “counter-revolutionaries” and “enemies of the state”.

On Monday 25 February 2019, it was announced that 86.85 percent of Cubans had voted “YES”, thus ratifying the new constitution. More than 700,000 people voted “NO”. Having vilified Christians as counter-revolutionaries and enemies of the state, it was to be expected that the state would escalate its persecution of the Church.

See:

·         Cuba: Persecution Escalates
Elizabeth Kendal, Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin, 17 July 2019.

Recommended:

·         Freedom of Religion or Belief in Cuba. (Report: 17 pages)
Christian Solidarity Worldwide, published 13 January 2020

In truth, the Cuban Church is deeply patriotic and risks much to stand with all Cubans in their pursuit of freedom.