PENALVER – The Catholic Church today opens its first new seminary in Cuba in more than half a century in a further sign of improving relations with the island’s communist-led government.
Workers this week put the final touches to the salmon-coloured complex of buildings organised around a chapel with stained-glass windows, 15km south of Havana.
The seminary replaces a similar complex expropriated by Cuba’s communist authorities in 1966 and transformed first into a military barracks, then a police academy.
Catholic officials said Cuban president Raul Castro was expected to attend the inauguration, reflecting the more cordial relations that now exist between the church and the government.
The two institutions were at odds for a long period following the 1959 revolution that put Fidel Castro in power and transformed the island into a communist state.
Since Raul Castro took over the presidency in 2008 because of his elder brother’s failing health, he has sought better relations with what is one of the country’s largest and most socially influential institutions outside of government.
President Castro turned to the church this year to serve as an internal interlocutor as he faced growing international pressure over political prisoners and human rights.
Cuban church leader Cardinal Jaime Ortega negotiated with him the ongoing release of more than 50 political prisoners and, according to western diplomats, opened an unofficial line of communication between Cuba and the US, which still do not have full formal diplomatic relations.
The seminary will be used to train new Cuban Catholic priests, who have been in short supply since the revolution.
To help celebrate the inauguration of the new facility, bishops from the Vatican and several countries are due to attend, among them Thomas Wenski, the Archbishop of Miami, who is at the heart of the Cuban exile community in the US. – (Reuters)