Cubans eye first Catholic church since revolution

SANDINO, CUBA (CNN) - Pope Francis' role in brokering improved U.S.-Cuban relations has bolstered the influence of the Catholic Church in Cuba.

And for the first time since the Cuban Revolution, Catholics have received permission to build a new church on the island.

Father Cirilo Castro holds mass in a converted garage. There are no walls and just a tin roof.

It doesn't always have enough chairs, but it is the closest thing the isolated Cuban town of Sandino has ever had to a Catholic Church. Soon, construction will begin on the first church to be built in Cuba in more than 56 years - since the Cuban Revolution seized control of the island.

"I hope the church doesn't stay within these four walls - that it will go farther than that," Castro said. "That with the building of the new church there will be more people of faith."

The only thing at the site now was the building's cornerstone. Castro said it would hold 200 people when completed.

The new church represents a mending of relations between the Catholic Church and Cuban government. In the first years of the revolution, the government seized church property and expelled thousands of priests from the country.

The church has added significance for the town's residents.

"Sandino is an isolated town deep in the countryside," Patrick Oppmann said. "Here is where in the early 1960s people considered enemies of Fidel Castro's revolution were sent by the government to live in eternal exile. For many, life here was nothing short of a punishment."

Digna Martinez's family were among the hundreds, perhaps thousands, who in the early '60s were considered to be opponents of the Cuban regime.

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Cubans eye first Catholic church since revolution