Cuba to build its first Catholic church in over 50 years

AP

Pope Benedict XVI and Cuban President Raul Castro walk outside the Revolution palace at the end of their meeting in Havana on 27 March 2012.

A team of Cuban workers are only one permit away from beginning construction on the communist country's first Catholic church since 1959.

The engineers plan to use scrap metal from a stage built for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's 2012 visit in the church's construction.

The head engineer, Fausto Veloz, described the magnitude of using pieces of the historical stage.

"Reusing the metal means keeping alive the memory of something good for us Catholics," he told BBC News. "It gives it new life, so it can serve future generations."

Cuba is officially a secular statethey removed their atheist classification in 1992although an estimated60 per cent of their population is Catholic. No new churches have been sanctioned by the government, and church leaders were only allowed to renovate existing buildings. Other buildings received no renovations, and the country is dotted with former sanctuaries that are now mostly wreckage. Theft from churches is reportedly common.

"We really need our church back," Maria Perez told BBC. Her former church, San Predito, was looted and destroyed. Perez said that former congregants gather in the streets for mass whenever a travelling priest visits.

Cuban Christians without a church home also gather in each other's homes for service, but they look forward to the day they can worship inside a sanctuary.

"The Catholic community is big here but they've never had a church," Veloz said.

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Cuba to build its first Catholic church in over 50 years