Holguin, Cuba, Sep 21 (EFE).- Pope Francis on Monday visited this eastern Cuban city, where he praised the work of the private "mission houses" in a land where there is a significant shortage of churches and priests.
There are 80 churches and only 37 clergymen in the diocese of Holguin, although the population there numbers approximately 1.65 million.
The mission houses are an initiative that emerged in the 1970s and, although they were not held in any regard by the Communist government, they were never prohibited. Throughout Cuba, there are currently 2,600 such facilities.
These are sites where such rituals as baptisms are performed, where communities undertake various types of activities and where there are regular celebrations. They have been considered by the Cuban Catholic bishops conference to be "one of the great strengths of the Church."
Since 1959, with the victory of the Revolution, no new churches have been built in Cuba until this year when the construction of three were authorized: one in Pinar del Rio, another in Havana and the third in Santiago de Cuba.
Immediately upon arriving in Holguin from Havana on the second stage of his trip to Cuba, which began last Saturday, the pope went to the square named for Cuban independence hero Calixto Garcia Iñiguez, where he estimated 100,000 people gathered for a papal Mass.
The pontiff's agenda in Holguin was brief, taking just a few hours, given that he was scheduled to spend the second part of his day in Santiago de Cuba, the island's second-largest city.
In his homily at the Mass, Francis emphasized the importance of the mission houses in Cuba.
"I know that with effort and sacrifice the Church in Cuba is working to bring to everyone, even in the most remote locations, the word and the presence of Christ," the pope said.
"Deserving special mention are the so-called mission houses, which - given the scarcity of churches and priests - allow so many people to be able to have a space for prayer, to hear the Word, the catechism and the life of the community," he said.
"They are small signs of the presence of God in our neighborhoods and a daily aid in bringing to life the words of the Apostle Paul (in Ephesians): 'I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called.'"
There are currently 70 of these mission houses in the Holguin diocese.
Following the Mass, the pope went to the Loma de la Cruz, the highest point in the city from where he symbolically blessed the populace.
The cross originally erected on that promontory was placed there by Father Francisco Antonio de Alegria, Franciscan prior of Holguin, in 1790, but the current one, the third to stand at the site, was put in place in the 1990s after the second one was destroyed by a lightning strike.
