Cuba to build first Catholic church since 1959 revolution
Metal bars salvaged from the stage built for Pope
Benedict XVI's visit will be used to build a new church On a hill behind Cuba's most important Catholic shrine, there is a heap of steel bars lying in the long grass.
They look abandoned, but the 25 tonnes of scrap metal are at the heart of a major religious recycling project - they will be transformed into the first Catholic church built in Communist Cuba since the 1959 revolution.
The engineer in charge of the project in Santiago de Cuba admits it is ambitious, not only because it is unprecedented but because the beams were once part of the stage built for Pope Benedict XVI's historic visit to the city in 2012.
"Re-using the metal means keeping alive the memory of something good for us Catholics. It gives it new life, so it can serve future generations," Fausto Veloz explains.
Our Lady of El Cobre is Cuba's most important
Catholic shrine But there is also a pressing, practical motivation for the project: Cuba's Catholics say they need more places to worship.
Once officially atheist, this Communist-run island is now a secular state.
“Start Quote
End Quote Fausto Veloz EngineerI don't know how long it will take to complete but I'm sure we'll do it”
The days when believers would baptise their children in
secret or attend mass surreptitiously in distant neighbourhoods have passed, and
even Communist Party members now practice their religion openly.
And yet after Fidel Castro took power more than five decades ago, the Catholic Church was only permitted to renovate existing properties or rebuild where old ones collapsed.
New churches were never sanctioned, suggesting lingering ideological doubts on high.
Visible scars
The apparent change of heart is particularly timely in Santiago - a few months after the papal visit, Hurricane Sandy tore through the city with devastating results.
The little wooden church of San Pedrito was one of seven totally destroyed, made vulnerable by old age and poor maintenance. Another 28 churches were damaged.
The storm killed 11 people and wrought huge destruction across the east of the island.
Almost two years on, its traces are still visible.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28738730
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