During his trip to Santiago de Cuba, Pope Francis will be staying at a humble retreat house located a stone’s throw away from the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, located in the hills of El Cobre, a 30-minute drive from the city of Santiago de Cuba.

I stayed at this retreat center in June, when I went to give a seminar to the Missionaries of Charity. They have a contemplative branch of sisters who live in a simple house next door to the retreat center. Upon arriving at my room, Sister Marie Lyrio — the Regional of Cuba and Jamaica for the Missionaries of Charity — pointed me directly across the courtyard. “See that room in the corner? That’s where Pope Francis is staying in September, and it is where Pope Benedict stayed when he visited Cuba.”

While I was there, the sisters were busy repairing and preparing the grounds for the arrival of the Pope, filling in cracks, painting walls, and ensuring the grounds would look nice. When Pope Benedict visited in 2012, the Contemplative Missionaries of Charity were invited to participate in the Pope’s simple Mass before his day of activities.

The rooms are modest with a bed, a shower that sometimes works — though I’m sure the Pope’s will be working — and an air-conditioning unit to spare the visitor from the sometimes-harsh humidity of Cuba’s climate. The facility is, in fact, a former seminary for the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba, though it now functions as a place for retreats and a place to house pilgrims who come to pray at the statue of Our Lady of Charity.

The grounds are simple, quiet and beautiful. You will find locals bringing their horses to graze on the grass, children playing soccer in the field, and pilgrims making their way to the Church.

 

Ideal for Marian Devotion

Yet what makes this place ideal for Pope Francis is that he is so close to the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity. As is known, our Holy Father has a deep devotion to Mary. Following his election, he placed flowers at the altar of Our Lady at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. His devotion to Our Lady, Untier of Knots, as well as the closeness he has to Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, demonstrates how close his heart is to our dearest Mother. He has already invoked the image of Our Lady of Charity upon his arrival to Cuba, and thus it is fitting that he is staying so close to the Church that is close to the heart of the Cuban people.

Our Holy Father comes to them to build bridges and to help build freedom for Christians in the midst of a government that still attempts — through a variety of means — to limit the appeal of the Gospel. On a weekend night during my stay at El Cobre, I could hear loud dance music coming from the town. I asked the sisters the next day if there was a major holiday or national feast that the people were celebrating. They informed me that this is something the government does every Saturday night for the young people: they foster large parties with cheap alcohol in the hopes that the young people will stay out all night so as to not go to Church the next morning.

The sisters also communicated to me that they are not allowed to do ministry among the poor on the streets of Cuba because the Cuban government has an official stance that ‘Cuba has no poverty.’ Hopefully Pope Francis — defender of the poor — will help ease government hostilities towards Christian charity in Cuba.