The church of San Charbel and Santo Tomás de Villanueva, located in the Havana municipality of Playa, was looted on April 29. Although there was no official statement from the ecclesiastical authorities, the Catholic journalist Adrián Martínez Cádiz published this Monday Photographs of the state of the temple after the passage of the thieves and denounced that they had taken “horns, lamps, fans” and the large candle known as the paschal candle.
Martínez explained that they had “entered through a window” of the temple, located on the emblematic Fifth Avenue, corner 17, in Playa, to then exit through one of the side doors. “The criminals used a ladder that was in the church (recently restored) to reach the lighting and patiently remove the ties from teipe of the lamps without cutting the wires,” he said.
The building had been subjected to a capital repair in 2021. The entire structure was restored, frescoes were painted and mosaics were placed, and the roof of the building was completely renovated.
After the incident, the Police carried out an operation and took “multiple fingerprint samples,” the journalist explains. In addition, they took several “items” that the criminals had used to force the doors and a sanitary mask, which allegedly belonged to one of the people who entered the temple.
They took several “items” that the criminals had used to force the doors and a sanitary mask, which presumably belonged to one of the people who entered the temple.
As Martínez points out, the area in which the building is located is “highly monitored with multiple government cameras,” since there are numerous embassies, diplomats’ homes, and the residences of most of the regime’s senior leaders in Playa. However, he adds, this did not “intimidate” the thieves.
“The hopes among the parishioners are not very high because they classify police work as inefficient and highlight the collapse of the authorities due to the growing wave of robberies and crime that the country is experiencing,” he concludes.
The artist Rael Rodríguez, one of those who participated in the restoration of the temple, commented on the images published by Martínez and affirmed that, if there is no response from the authorities, it will set a “serious precedent” of defenselessness of the Catholic Church.
It is not the first time that Martínez has exposed break-ins by force in ecclesiastical properties. On the occasion of an attempted robbery at the San Juan María Vianney Priestly House – a sort of hostel located in El Vedado – on April 22, he reported that a man tried to reach “the entrance of the garage that is attached to the perimeter wall.” . There he remained “observing” for two minutes, without suspecting that he was being captured by the surveillance cameras, which made it possible for him to be intercepted by security personnel.
Two other robberies, which occurred on March 7 and April 5, respectively, were denounced by the reporter. Both buildings – the parish of the Sacred Heart and the chapel of Jesús Obrero, both located in El Vedado – are under the responsibility of the Dominican friar Lester Zayas, one of the priests most critical of the regime.
In the case of the Jesús Obrero chapel, Martínez noted the proximity of the building to the Special Troops unit of Havana, the so-called “black berets”, which has guards at its entrance throughout the day
In the case of the Jesús Obrero chapel, Martínez noted the proximity of the building to the Special Troops unit of Havana, the so-called “black berets”, which has guards at its entrance throughout the day. “This time they entered the temple by breaking the side door. Although they removed things and broke some cables connected between a laptop and a projector, they did not take anything,” he noted.
On the other hand, the Church of the Sacred Heart is located in front of the municipal headquarters of the Communist Party. The proximity of both properties to military and political institutions seems, in Martínez’s opinion, suspicious. In addition, the crime perpetrated on April 29 in the parish of San Charbel and Santo Tomás de Villanueva happened a few days after a meeting between Miguel Díaz-Canel and the Cuban Episcopal Conference.
A statement published by the bishops on Friday, April 28, briefly commented that, among the contents of the meeting, there was no “specific situation of the Church”, which suggests that they did not address the break-ins by force in the temples. According to confirmed the secretary of the Conference, Ariel Suárez, to the Reuters agency, the prelates focused the meeting on the situation of the political prisoners detained after the demonstrations of July 11, 2021.
The temple of Santo Tomás de Villanueva also has another special meaning. It was part of the old Catholic University of Santo Tomás de Villanueva, the only school of its kind on the island, promoted by the Augustinian friars in 1946 and confiscated by Fidel Castro in 1961, after the expulsion of its founders from Cuba.
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