Havana, Cuba, (EWTN
News/CNA): The Diocese of Santa Clara, Cuba now has two new
priests who both converted to Catholicism as teens, despite
anti-Christian efforts launched by the country's communist
regime in the 1950s.
Fathers Neldo Jose Hernandez Alonso and Maykel Aguila Moya –
both 33-years-old – were raised in families where the faith was
not practiced due to social pressure and the risk involved with
being a Catholic in Cuba.
“I was born into a family with excellent human
values but not those based on the Christian faith and values,
which are really the most important ones.
Religious practice in my
family was unfortunately forgotten because of the lack of
practice, because of social pressure or fear,” said Father
Maykel Aguila Moya.
The
Bishops' Conference of Cuba reported that Bishop Marcelo
Gonzalez Amador of Santa Clara presided at the Aug. 11
ordination. He thanked God for the new priests and their
families and the Christian communities for accompanying them in
their vocations.
He
also reminded the new priests that the priesthood is a great
gift that demands vocation and fidelity to Christ, to the bishop
and to the community they serve.
In a story published in 2009
by the blog Creerencuba.org, then-seminarian Maykel said that
unlike his brother, he was not baptized as an infant because
“expressing certain religious beliefs could endanger us in
society.”
“As a child
my mother went to church and received the sacraments of
Christian initiation, but when things began to change, she
slowly began to forget about her faith.
As a child I always wondered
why the kids who went to church were considered different at
school; and yet, to me they were the best students and the most
educated.”
However,
when he was 13-years-old, his father died and he began to ask
questions “about human existence and about life after death.”
“Some friends invited me to go to church
and...after that my life changed, I began to know who Jesus of
Nazareth was,” Maykel said.
“I was just like any other young person, with my
dreams and hopes. I have had jobs and have done without like
every other Cuban, but with the difference that I know that I
have a God who I can trust, and with Him I should not fear
nothing or nobody, as He is always with me,” he said.
