Consecrated life perseveres in Cuba despite a lack of vocations

Daughters of Charity Congregation in Cuba. / Credit: Archdiocese of Havana

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 15, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Cuba is facing a shortage of religious vocations to the point that the country is losing almost one women’s religious congregation each year. Even so, the presence of consecrated men and women remains an indispensable pillar for sustaining the Church’s evangelizing mission on the island.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Father Ricardo Alberto Sola, president of the Cuban Conference of Religious, explained that consecrated life on the island “is very rich,” although it has suffered a significant decline in recent years.

“We are losing almost one women’s religious congregation per year, as they leave Cuba due to the vocational crisis and their inability to maintain their presence because of a shortage of people,” the priest warned.

The priest noted that there are currently about 118 religious congregations in Cuba, mostly female, with around 700 sisters and just over 140 priests from 65 different countries. According to figures from the pontifical institution Aid to the Church in Need, there are a total of 370 priests (religious and diocesan) in the country to serve the 20,872 faithful.

Despite this situation, Sola said that “consecrated life in Cuba is fundamental to fulfilling the mission of faith and the Gospel in Cuba” and warned that, without them, “more than half of the services would collapse today; they wouldn’t be sustainable.”

He insisted on the urgent need to “nurture and strengthen” this presence, which is essential for pastoral work on the island.

To learn firsthand about the situation of vocations in Cuba, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, pro-prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Daniela Leggio, head of the promotion and formation section, visited the country from Nov. 22 to Dec. 2.

According to Sola, the cardinal traveled for 15 hours by road from Havana to La Caridad de Cobre, where he held several meetings in which he “spoke with everyone, gave them his blessing, listened to their problems and the urgent needs of the country.”

Sola said this visit reaffirmed the commitment of those in consecrated life to “be at the service of the people, and especially the most needy and the communities having the hardest time.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.