The Vincentian family, including the Daughters of Charity, has served in Cuba since the mid-1800s.

Evangelization in Cuba Holds Unique Challenges

How would you like to work on a tropical island? You’re picturing gentle breezes, swaying palm trees, pristine beaches…paradise, right? Father Gilbert Walker, CM, laughs heartily at the image. “It’s actually like being in Mississippi in the summer – all year long!” he says of his post in Cuba, where he has served since 2003.

Fr. Walker is part of a very long line of Vincentians to serve in Cuba. He lives in Old Havana, established by the Spanish in 1519. It was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1982 for its distinguished Spanish colonial architecture.

Fr. Walker is attached to the Church of La Merced, which began construction in 1699 and was finished by Vincentians who arrived in 1863. The Vincentians will celebrate their 150th anniversary in La Merced in 2013.

Fr. Walker is superior of the local Vincentian community and serves as chaplain at Provincial House Chapel of the Daughters of Charity, the spiritual home for approximately 300 lay people. He is also the spiritual director for five seminarians at the inter-diocesan seminary in Havana.

But Fr. Walker’s primary assignment is Provincial Director of the Daughters of Charity in Cuba. There are 60 sisters organized into nine houses, which extend from one end of the island to the other. “The heart of this ministry involves the spiritual and Vincentian animation of the sisters and their works,” he says.

The Daughters of Charity are responsible for many programs, from afterschool workshops to parish ministries, but their largest undertaking is in healthcare ministry. In conjunction with the Ministry of Public Health, they operate two homes for the elderly, with different levels of care. One home is for a mixed group of 120 residents; the other is a women-only facility with 160 residents. They also work in the state-run hospital for patients with Hansen’s disease as well as in a home for differently-abled children and adults.

The daily substance of the work is a challenge, but Fr. Walker and the sisters are actively working on another front as well: changing the way they work with lay people to include them more fully in the spiritual mission of St. Vincent.

“Our goal in Cuba is to have the sisters and lay people working in spiritual collaboration on the mission entrusted to them. There are not a lot of models in Cuba for working that way. They are more familiar with a hierarchical model,” says Fr. Walker.

 “Rather than having the sisters make all the operational decisions and telling employees what to do, we want to share the ministry. It’s about more than getting the work done. We want them to experience the spiritual development that is available through hands-on direct service to the needy.

“We’re talking about sharing power. If we just shared decision-making
without spirituality, then we would be exchanging one type of authority with another,” he says.

In this way, both the substance and the style of the work is evangelical, and as such, it is a microcosm of the broader picture of Catholicism in Cuba. “One of our greatest challenges
is to evangelize the laity. While Catholicism is widespread in Cuba (Fr. Walker estimates
60 to 70 percent are baptized Catholics), less than 1 percent attend Mass regularly,” he says.

“Interest in the Church is growing, however. Pope John Paul’s visit in 1998 energized the mission of the Church here. And last November, interest also swelled with the first beatification of Cuban brother of St. John of God, Padre Olallo Valdes. We are at a new high-water mark for Catholicism in Cuba,” he says.

Fr. Walker and the Church face another, more unique, challenge in Cuba: Santeria, an ancient mix of West African belief and Catholicism. “Santeria is a devotion to African gods disguised as devotion to Catholic saints,” he explains. “Many of the saints have counterparts in African gods, and people venerate them interchangeably. For example, Our Lady of Charity, the patroness of Cuba, is identified with the African god Ochun. Our Lady of Mercy, in the church where I live, is identified with Obatala. Part of our Catholic mission in Cuba is to purify the myths and practices of Santeria and encourage faith in Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church.”

While encountering completely new challenges in Cuba such as Santeria, Fr. Walker in many ways feels right at home. Probably the best preparation for his current assignment was growing up in Gulfport, Mississippi – and not just because the weather is somewhat similar. “My family is of French and Spanish origin, and we share the same sense of family as Latinos. I grew up in a tight-knit extended family, not so different from most Cuban families,” he explains.

He also feels at home with the Daughters of Charity, who first inspired him in high school. “The Daughters of Charity were instrumental in discovering my vocation.
I owe them a debt of gratitude. It is a real privilege to work with them now and give back in some small way. I am continually challenged by their example of service to the needy,” he says.In the course of his formation, Fr. Walker attended the seminaries
in Perryville, Missouri, and Lamont, Illinois, and completed his studies at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver. Since his ordination in 1987 he has served in the Dominican Republic as well as in the southern United States.

After 28 years as a Vincentian, he reflects, “I was attracted to three dimensions of the Vincentian way of life: community, service, and prayer.

I wanted to live in community with men who shared a similar focus, and were dedicated to serving and evangelizing the poor.

 “I’m very grateful to God and the community for this experience to work as a missionary in Cuba. I hope I’ve been able to enrich the lives of others in the community and the Church,” he says. The Vincentian mission in Cuba endures.

Left: Parishioners gather for the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy at the historic La Merced Church. Right: Steeped in history and surrounded by natural beauty, Father Gilbert Walker, CM, tackles 21st century challenges in working with the needy.