Print Issue: September 26, 2002

Helping Cuba From U.S. Shores: Priest Says Acts Of Charity, Evangelization Can Be Done Now

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

(Clockwise, from left) Pedro Ruiz, Reemberto Rodriguez Jr., Alfredo Vincenty and Steven Pardo prepare to process out of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, with the statue of Our Lady of Charity following a special service in her honor. (Photos by Michael Alexander)

ATLANTA - At a Mass Sept. 7 honoring Our Lady of Charity, Cuban-American Father Francisco Santana told an old joke that one can't survive without "fe," which means faith in English, but also stands for "family on the exterior."

Father Santana, who was forced to leave Cuba as a seminarian in 1961 after Castro rose to power, takes that joke seriously. In 1994 he and a group in Miami formed Cubanos con Fe en Acción (Cubans with Faith in Action), an ecumenical nonprofit which delivers about 2,220 lbs. of medicine a month to their sick and suffering brothers and sisters of Cuba.

Through Catholic radio shows broadcast in Cuba, he asks people in need of medicines to write him, and receives around 55 letters daily. Working through unofficial channels, volunteers travel to Cuba carrying not luggage but medicine, which is distributed through doctors and nurses of the Catholic charity Caritas, evangelical churches and the Masons. The Cuban government tolerates their work, he said, as it is not politicized but low-key. They also pack in messages of faith and God's love. And their delivery confirmation: the thousands of thank-you letters they've received.

Father Santana, who lives at the Shrine of la Caridad in Miami, spoke of Fe en Acción as he preached at the Mass honoring Cuba's patroness at the Cathedral of Christ the King. Archbishop John F. Donoghue presided. Songs during the solemn service included the Cuban national anthem and "Patroncita de Cuba." Young men carried in an image of Our Lady of Charity. Worship leaders asked for Mary's intercession for freedom and blessings for Cuba.

The service, coordinated by Alfredro Ledón, drew Cuban-Americans but also others from Latin America. Father Santana asked them to join him in helping the people of Cuba, overcoming division and an attitude that any work of charity means helping Castro.

"It was a day to get together and pray and celebrate a love of God, a love of our Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Charity, but also our identity as Cubans and our prayers to the Virgin so that she will somehow help us with the problems we have as a big family, as a nation," he said in an interview later. "Only true love will overcome our problems . . . If we feel we are Cuban and love our country, the only thing we can do is to pray and help the people."

While the Cuban church has grown stronger since the pope's visit in 1998, Father Santana spoke of "de-Christianization" through decades of communist control and the need to rebuild it morally and economically. He now has two evangelization programs "Radio Católica Mundial" and "Cuba tu Esperanza" (Cuba Your Hope).

"I told them, the way really to overcome all our problems as a people, the way to reconciliation goes through charity . . . We have to work people to people, we have to evangelize in Cuba," he continued. "People say we have to wait for Castro to die to begin doing this work of beginning healing all the damage done morally and ethically to the people. We don't have to wait. We can do it now through religious programs, sending medicines, visiting the people, not going as tourists but going to churches and trying to help the people."

Marcella Davila, far left, joins other women and men in the chorus from the Cuban community of the Cathedral of Christ the King during the Sept. 7 Mass celebrating Our Lady of Charity.

Cuba once had an excellent system of health care when the country received money from the Soviet Union, but now only the elite and tourists who can pay in dollars have high quality treatment, he said.

"When the Soviet Union collapsed it has been terrible because they still have the infrastructure and doctors, but they don't have the money to provide the medicine and basic needs. Cuban hospitals have become a total disaster."

Father Santana said coordinators of the charity have been struggling to raise funds since a principal donor died in 2000. He needs the help of the Atlanta community to donate medicine and funds or, paying their own way, to fly to Cuba to deliver it. He has a core group of about 30 volunteers, mainly doctors, nurses and pharmacists.

"In lots of churches in Cuba they have my name and address and when people ask for medicine they have been able to write me . . . We are always trying to find ways to get medicine there but doing it under the radar," he said. "We cannot say that we cannot help our brothers and sisters in Cuba now. If we don't do it, it is because we don't want to do it, because it can be done."

Father Francisco Santana of Miami is the main celebrant and homilist for the Mass in honor of Our Lady of Charity.

It's a call from God for Father Santana. "It comes with a cross, a big one, but with a cross comes also the strength that comes from heaven to be able to carry on."

As Cuban-Americans carry their cross, Mary will pour charity and comfort into their hearts, the archbishop said, and she understands their sorrow at being forced to leave their homeland and for those still living on the island. He spoke of how Our Lady of Charity first appeared floating on the waters of the Bay of Nipe, Cuba, in the seventeenth century, after three days of storm, and was picked up by the countrymen. Her image was put in the parish of "El Cobre" and, as she was also seen on the hill of "El Cobre," a small chapel was built there to house the image, which today is the National Sanctuary. She was declared the patron saint of Cuba in 1916.

"And may she speak, insistently, into the ear of the Divine Child she bears, our only Lord Jesus Christ, the words we say to Him every day, 'Lord, free our homeland, restore our homeland to us, and bring back to its shores, the shores of the land of Cuba, the blessings it has known before, the blessings for which it cries out today.'"

Cindy Perez, 3, participates in the candlelight rosary procession following the Mass.

Following the Mass attendees carried candles in a procession with an image of Our Lady while reciting the rosary. A reception was held afterwards.

Javier Boffill, who moved from Cuba in 1997 with his family, was glad to come together with the Cuban community and honor Mary. He said the church in Cuba is similar to Atlanta, without all the technology in buildings, and that many attend Mass. The Virgin "is a person that guides me and I pray and I always ask her to take care of my family over there and protect them," he said.

He feels angry for being forced to leave his homeland. "I think when Castro dies everything in Cuba will be back to normal. I left all my friends, my school, my grandmother, my family, my aunts and cousins."

While she's from Venezuela, Lorena Garcia-Diaz said the service brought her to tears. Considering a career in health care, she said, "If they're really good at (health care) they should apply it to the whole country. How are they going to grow if they don't help the community? They have a lot of technology so they should help the people there that are really poor. I didn't know anything about that, so it was amazing."

Physician and former political prisoner in Cuba Antonio Valdes-Rodriguez said he could write a book about the sad state of health care in Cuba. He was impressed by Father Santana's work, but for him traveling to Cuba means supporting Castro. But Mass was a very good time to support Cuba spiritually and gather with others to discuss the "deplorable state in Cuba," and honor her patroness, "the purest form of woman."

To assist Cubanos con Fe en Acción write to Father Francisco Santana, 3609 S. Miami Ave., Miami, Fla. 33133.