Cuban archdiocese opens home for the elderly

Camagüey, Cuba, Jun 6, 2019 / 15:18 pm

The Archdiocese of  Camagüey inaugurated the Archbishop Adolfo Home for the Elderly to serve the city's seniors last month.

During the May 25 event, Archbishop Wilfredo Pino Estevez of Camagüey said the initiative shows how the Cuban state and Church can cooperate.

"I believe that the Public Health System and the Church have set an example of how we can work together to achieve a common good. And that is something we must continue to maintain," the prelate said. He also encouraged the initiative "to be multiplied in other areas in which the Cuban Church and the state could work together."

"In the end, we are all at the service of one and the same Cuban people," he said.

The prelate highlighted the presence of the Camillian Sisters who will serve the elderly.

The home bears the name of Archbishop Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera, who led the diocese for 40 years. The facility took 13 years to build and constitutes a great achievement for the Church in Cuba.

The prelate also recalled the letter that Archbishop Rodriguez wrote 18 years ago addressed to a Cuban official about the project: "I wish to take the opportunity to reiterate to you that the Church does not seek to compete nor to overshadow other institutions of this kind. For centuries (and in Cuba for 500 years), the Church, by a mandate from Jesus Christ, has raised up the first schools, hospitals, leprosariums, and asylums, when there was no one to compete with nor to eclipse. Experience, also in Camagüey, before and now, shows that a school, a hospital, an asylum... does not compete, rather it stimulates, establishes a healthy emulation that benefits everyone. A Home for the Elderly, is not a productive business but an under appreciated service for a very difficult stage in life which is old age."

Archbishop Pino commented: "All of us who knew him will never forget the saintly bishop who taught us, in word and deed  to always trust in the Lord, a conviction that made him a serene and positive being even in the dark and difficult hours of our history!"

He likewise recognized the support of "so many people and institutions, inside and outside the country, who, with their financial contributions according to their means, made this construction possible." He also thanked the lay people, deacons, priests, sisters and others others who got involved and helped the project go forward.

"Thanks for the example you gave us in reminding us that this work does not belong to one group but of all of you!"

Also present at the dedication was the Bishop Domingo Oropesa Lorente of Cienfuegos, whom Pino also thanked for the efforts he made benefiting this great work.