Christianity now tolerated in Cuba but still faces many challenges
There have been some improvements in the treatment of Christians in Cuba since the constitutional reform in 1992, but church leaders still experience discrimination and harassment from the government.
A group of Cuban church leaders, who wish to remain anonymous, told World Watch Monitor that the persecution Christians experience at present is more subtle than before, but still exists.
"I don't believe that there is explicit, open persecution, but there is implicit, hidden persecution, with very different methods to those used before," one church leader said.
"It's a subtle method, like saying: 'I am not persecuting you, but I have control over everything. I know who you are meeting, I know where you are going, I know what you are doing.' For me, it's a method of intimidation," the leader added.
In the past Christians were not allowed to attend university and join certain fields like politics, psychology, sociology and medicine.
Christians have better opportunities and more freedom to perform church work but one pastor said that the government still maintains some level of control over the churches.
One of the church leaders noted that Christian literature is virtually non-existent in the country and there are no Christian bookshops.
The relationship between the Catholic Church in the government improved after Pope John Paul II visited Cuba in 1998. This eventually led to an improvement in the government's relationship with Protestant churches.
The restrictions in the construction of churches is another major challenge for Christians. There are strict regulations to prevent them from turning houses into churches.
"If, for example, the [Christians] make the room bigger, they say that it is illegal, because you modified the structure of the property. They have classified a series of illegalities so that they can confiscate the house from you," one pastor said.
Last August, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) reported that the Cuban government targeted as many as 1,400 churches for seizure in 2015. CSW documented 1,606 cases of violations of freedom of religion or belief in Cuba between January and July 2016.
