For a decade and despite the difficulties facing Cuba, catechist Diana Calderón decided to remain there to support the Church in its evangelizing mission.
Diana Calderón is a 26-year-old married woman who works as a stomatologist and has served for ten years as a catechist in the parish of San Antonio de Padua, in the Diocese of Cienfuegos, in Cuba.
Diana recalled that she was born “into a Catholic family that taught me Christian values,” and that since she was a child she was trained in her faith thanks to the catechesis she received at church.
However, she specified that exercising her right to religious freedom in Cuba “was not [always] easy, because in the past, living our Catholic faith could be at the expense of food, family, work and home.”
“In the eyes of many, our country is a Caribbean paradise with a romantic history, but the reality is very different,” she said. “Life is not easy, despite all this beauty and joy, it is common for people to fall into depression. Many give up hope for something better,” she added.
When Fidel Castro’s Revolution took power in 1959, the Catholic Church in Cuba suffered restrictions on its freedom, with the confiscation of properties, elimination of Catholic schools, expulsion of priests and nuns, among others.
Although in recent years the situation has improved somewhat for the Catholic Church, its work is still hampered by the emigration of pastoral agents due to the economic crisis, the impossibility of having means of communication, the inability to openly provide an education Catholic with its own schools, among other things.
In the midst of this reality, the Catholic Church in Cuba, with the support of donations from the Catholic charity organizations has brought hope and development opportunities to Cubans all these years.