Pope in Cuba

Before the Pope even sets foot in Cuba on September 19, the effect of his visit has already been impressive: the government in Havana has just announced that in honor of his visit they will release 3,522 political prisoners as a gesture of good will. That is more than the combined amount released during the visits of Francis' two predecessors, Benedict in 2012, and John Paul II in 1998.

But that's not all: after the resumption of diplomatic relations between the former archenemies there are real signs of hope for a "Papal prize." According to the Vatican missionary press service Fides, for the first time since 1959 Cuban authorities have given approval for the construction a new church in Cuba, which is to be built in an East Havana neighborhood.

The Catholic spring has not, however, hindered the persecution of individuals critical of the government. On September 10, around 100 activists who intended to deliver a letter to Pope Francis, were arrested in the pilgrimage center "El Cobre," in Santiago de Cuba. Three days later, 40 members of the human rights group "Ladies in White" were also arrested.

Mass pardons and political oppression – such contradictions are part of everyday life in the island nation. The Catholic church and its members have also been the target of such oppression for years. In fact, fear is rooted so deeply that many Catholics still avoid open discussions.

Exodus of the faithful

"In 1961, the government declared the Catholic Church public enemy number one," recalls parish employee Cecilia Silva (name changed) of Havana. "The church was only able to keep pilgrimage sites alive by mixing Catholic saints with Afro-Cuban deities," says the committed Catholic.

In the wake of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, some 300,000 Catholics and 30,000 Protestants left the island. Two years later there were just 250 priests and pastors left in the country. Christians were considered counter-revolutionaries.

Nevertheless, Cubans never lost their religion. They secretly baptized their children and they prayed to saints that were religiously compatible. The figure of Lazarus, for instance, corresponds with Babalu Aye, the African god of medicine and healing. And the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, Cuba's patron saint, is also venerated as the Aphrodite of the African pantheon.

In 1992, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Fidel Castro changed the country's constitution and allowed for the transformation of Cuba from an atheist state to that of a lay state. Since then, Catholics have been allowed to become members of the Communist party, and communists can also become Catholics.

In 2012, during a visit by Pope Benedict, Fidel's brother Raul reintroduced Good Friday as a legal holiday. The incremental rapprochement between the communist revolutionaries and Catholic church leaders climaxed with a diplomatic coup instigated by Pope Francis which led to the thawing of relations between Washington and Havana.

Competition for Catholics

The rapprochement between the USA and Cuba could, however, lead to American congregations even more aggressively evangelizing their brothers and sisters on the island. Currently, Protestants and Pentecostals are a small minority. So this could signal competition for the Catholic church, which dominates Cuba's "religious market."

"The quiet period is over, Cuba could soon be at the receiving end of a religious Latin Americanization," predicts Christoph Anders, director of the Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW), and the head of their Latin American department. Pentecostal churches could set off an evangelical boom in Cuba, just as they have in the rest of the region.

Did Pope John Paul II truly envision the effects that he predicted when he uttered the now historical sentence, "May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba," when he arrived there on January 21, 1998. In any case, that Papal wish has now been fulfilled.

With growing religious freedom, many Cubans now hope that further political and speech freedoms will follow. The digital magazine "Convivencia," founded in 2008 by the Catholic intellectual Dagoberto Valdes Hernandez, sees the church as a pioneer for change.

"True religious freedom is not limited to the ability to hold church services," states one article in the magazine. "The church must have access to social media and be allowed to be socially and politically active in order to implement Catholic social teaching. [The Church] is a facilitator, and a ray of hope on the path to a constitutional democracy."