Bro. Paul O’Keeffe is an experienced missionary who travels to where the struggles are desperate, and the needs are great. At the behest of the Franciscan Missionary Union (FMU), he’s led international mission trips to Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean. In fact, Brother Paul has been to Cuba not a few, not many, but thirteen times. When he travels to the north Caribbean island with his fellow friars, he visits the two Franciscan parishes in the capital city of Havana.
There, he helps the OFM friars who faithfully maintain the parishes stock and run ‘mini-clinics’—pseudo pharmacies that came to be because the need was indeed great.
“During one of my trips to Cuba,” shares Bro. Paul, “one of the friars got a call from a family in another province, saying, ‘Do you have any cleaning soap? Bath soap, dish soap—we’ll take any soap because none of the stores out here have it!'”
“Every time we’ve gone to Cuba post-pandemic,” he continues, “we’ve brought suitcases full of toiletries: Band-Aids, Ben Gay, medications, over-the-counter painkillers—just anything we can think of because people need it. So, if you have athlete’s foot, you can go to one of these mini-clinics and get a squeeze of athlete’s foot powder. You can come every day until that’s taken care of.”
In addition to the mini-clinics, the two parishes are home to soup kitchens that provide free meals twice a week.
Sadly, a lack of food and toiletries aren’t Cuba’s only problems. In his thirteen trips to Cuba, Bro. Paul has seen the needs of Cubans grow exponentially.
“The electricity went out for a week in the whole country—nobody had electricity! They’re saying it will take billions to fix the infrastructure, which hasn’t been worked on in the last 60 years. So that, combined with the food and gasoline shortages there, has made it difficult. In the last year, about 600,000 Cubans have left because of the shortages and difficulties—and that’s caused a labor shortage because mostly young people are leaving.”
The shortages and resulting difficulties have also affected the friars’ presence and outreach.
“Before the 1959 revolution, the friars were in nearly 30 locations throughout the country—in parishes and schools,” says Bro. Paul. “After the revolution, the locations were taken over by the government or closed due to a lack of personnel. Our current presence represents a significant decrease from our pre-revolution presence. There are also Capuchin and Conventual Friars in Cuba serving communities and doing pastoral work, but we all wish we could do more.”
In Cuba, the communist government maintains regulations regarding religious services and evangelical activities. This wasn’t always the case. Working with the FMU, Bro. Paul once took socially conscious laypeople to Cuba to experience missionary outreach and the grace of Christ in a unique, Caribbean culture.
“The last time I took a group of laypeople was in March 2024. They were an older group in their late 60s and 70s, mostly women, all connected with the friars in some way. One of the parishes arranged for a group of parishioners to explain their lives and struggles. We had physicists, medical doctors, dentists, psychologists, engineers—all of whom talked about the indignity of being so educated, knowing what they need, and how the government faces challenges in providing certain services and medications. So, our help was viewed as very life-giving.”
Country-wide power outages. Gasoline and labor shortages. Mass emigration. Though undeniably resilient and remarkable, the Cuban people need more organizations like the FMU and missionaries like Bro. Paul to get the help they need. However, not everyone has to travel overseas to lend a hand. Help can be given from the comforts of home.
“The best way to help is to donate to the friars or another organization they have vetted very well,” says Bro. Paul. “With the friars, people can be assured that 100% of what they give goes to the Cuban people.”
If you’d like to support the friars and help our Cuban friends endure the ongoing difficulties in their country, please click the button below.
