Cubans are coming to parishes saying they haven’t eaten in days, bishop laments

In a country where deprivation is the norm, the situation is exacerbated by deteriorating infrastructure and the U.S. fuel embargo. People are hungry and the Church is striving to meet their needs.

The president of the Cuban Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Marcelo González Amador, said people are coming to parishes in Cuba saying “they’ve gone days without eating.”

In a conversation this week with Aid to the Church in Need/Spain, the 70-year-old prelate expressed his anguish over the crisis afflicting the country, saying that “Cuba is hurting.”

González, the bishop of Santa Clara, recounted that “there are people showing up [at the parishes] saying they’ve gone days without eating and don’t know where to turn. Food can’t be kept fresh due to the lack of electricity, and recently people have been frequently fainting in church because many of them haven’t eaten.”

“Everything is a struggle to survive. The present is precarious; the future, totally uncertain.” It’s “the most difficult and saddest moment in the history of my people that I have ever witnessed,” he said.

Furthermore, the crisis is also impacting the healthcare system, as “in some major hospitals, surgeries are not being performed due to a lack of water” and surgical supplies. “I know of more than one case where someone had to seek out every necessary resource — even suture thread — from family or friends abroad in order to undergo surgery,” he noted.

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