Christianity is the most widely professed religion in Cuba, with Catholicism being its largest denomination. A significant share of the Cuban population is either non-religious or practices folk religions.

Before the arrival of Spanish missionaries, the people residing in the territory of modern-day Cuba practiced a variety of faiths.

Overview The Cuban population has historically been Christian, primarily Roman Catholic, although the irreligious population has grown substantially in recent decades. Catholicism in Cuba is in some instances profoundly modified and influenced through syncretism. A common syncretic religion is Santería, which combined the Yoruba religion of the African slaves with Catholicism and some Native American strands; it shows similarities to Brazilian Umbanda and has been receiving a degree of official support. The Roman Catholic Church estimates that 60 percent of the population is Catholic, but only 5% of that 60% attends mass regularly, while independent sources estimate that as few as 1.5% of the population does so.

A 2022 survey by Observa Cuba found that 49% of the population professed a religion. In a 2015 survey sponsored by Univision, 44% of Cubans said they were not religious and 9% did not give an answer while 34% said they were religious. Membership in Protestant churches is estimated to be 5 percent and includes Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and Lutherans. In recent decades, Protestantism has seen some flourishing.Swarns. “Cuba’s Protestant Churches: A Growing Flock," The New York Times, 29 January 1998.2018 Report on International Religious Freedom: Cuba, June 21, 2019 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Other Christian denominations include the Greek Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Non-Christian minority religions in Cuba include Hinduism and Chinese folk religion, which each account for 0.2% of the population, as well as the Baháʼí Faith, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Neoreligions, which all have non-negligible numbers of followers accounting for less than 0.1% of Cuba's population. In addition to the above, 18.0% of Cubans declared themselves to be agnostic and 5.1% claimed to be atheists.

Cuba is home to a variety of syncretic religions of largely African cultural origin. According to a US State Department report, some sources estimate that as much as 80 percent of the population consults with practitioners of religions with West African roots, such as Santeria, Palo, or Cuban Vodú. Santería developed out of the traditions of the Yoruba, one of the African peoples who were imported to Cuba during the 16th through 19th centuries to work on the sugar plantations. Santería blends elements of Christianity and West African beliefs and as such made it possible for the slaves to retain their traditional beliefs while appearing to practice Catholicism. La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre (Our Lady Of Charity) is the Catholic patroness of Cuba and is greatly revered by the Cuban people and seen as a symbol of Cuba. In Santería, she has been syncretized with the goddess Ochún. The important religious festival "La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre" is celebrated by Cubans annually on 8 September. Other religions practiced are Palo Monte and Abakuá, which have large parts of their liturgy in African languages.

Although restrictions on religion in Cuba were minimal compared to other communist nations like the Soviet Union or China, the large atheist population was most likely caused by the communist atmosphere of Marxist-Leninist atheism.

History Leadership of Fidel Castro

After the communist revolution of 1959, the Cuban government restricted religious practice. Religious people were not allowed to join the Cuban Communist Party due to religion being contradictory to the party's Marxist philosophy. In August 1960, several bishops signed a joint pastoral letter condemning communism and declaring it incompatible with Catholicism, and calling on Catholics to reject it. Castro gave a four-hour speech the next day, condemning priests who serve "great wealth" and using fears of Falangist influence to attack Spanish-born priests, declaring "There is no doubt that Franco has a sizeable group of fascist priests in Cuba and that imperialism, through its falangist and fascist influence with Franco, has been ceaselessly moving its pawns to try to bring the revolution into a conflict."

From 1959 to 1961, 80% of the professional Christian priests and ministers of the Cuban churches left Cuba for the United States. The property of the clergy was also nationalized.

The decade following the 1960s was turbulent, and many people lost interest in religion because much of the religious hierarchy opposed the popular revolution. The Archdiocese of Havana in 1971 reported only 7,000 baptisms.Oliva, Enrique Lopez. Religious reawakening: stirrings in Cuba. In 1989 this figure had increased to 27,609 and in 1991 to 33,569.

In 1985 the Council of State in Havana published a best-selling book called (Fidel and Religion), which was the condensed transcription of 23 hours of interviews between Fidel Castro and a Brazilian liberation theology friar named Frei Betto, O.P. He admitted the revolution made mistakes with respect to religious people, said discrimination against people of faith must end, and that conditions should be created where usage of "religion as a counter-revolutionary weapon will be nullified by the confidence and fraternity that will exist among all revolutionaries in our country." He claimed responsibility for excluding non-atheists from Communist Party membership on grounds that:

In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the state adopted a more conciliatory position towards religion and lessened its promotion of atheism. In November 1991 the Communist Party began to allow believers into its ranks. In July 1992, the constitution was amended to change the designation of Cuba from being an atheist state to being a secular state, and article 42 was added, which prohibited discrimination based on religious belief. Small worship centers were legally permitted to exist again. In the early 1990s, weekly church-attendance on the island of 11 million was estimated at around 250,000 or about 2% of the population (with an even division between Catholics and Protestants). Cuba had fewer priests per inhabitant than any other Latin American country.

Since 1992, restrictions have been eased, and direct challenges by state institutions to the right to believe eased somewhat, though the Roman Catholic church still faces restrictions of written and electronic communication and can only accept donations from state-approved funding sources. The Roman Catholic Church is made up of the Cuban Catholic Bishops' Conference (CCBC), led by Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, Cardinal Archbishop of Havana. It has eleven dioceses, 56 orders of nuns, and 24 orders of priests.

The Cuban Bishops' Conference has severely criticized the US embargo against Cuba and has claimed that the entire population has suffered from it. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been influenced by this and has argued for the exclusion of food and medicine from the embargo.

In January 1998, although he was an anti-communist, Pope John Paul II paid a historic visit to the island, invited by the Cuban government and the Catholic Church in Cuba. The pope criticized the US embargo during his visit. Pope Benedict XVI visited Cuba in 2012 and Pope Francis visited in 2015. New York Times May 11, 2015, A4 In a shift in policy, the Cuban government has issued permits to allow the construction of a new church in Cuba, the first since 1959.

On October 20, 2008, the first Russian Orthodox Church in Cuba opened during an official ceremony attended by Raúl Castro.

Leadership of Raúl Castro The stance of the Cuban Communist Party began to shift. Raúl Castro said in a 2015 televised news conference in which he discussed Pope Francis's September 2015 visit, "I am from the Cuban Communist Party that doesn't allow believers, but now we are allowing it. It's an important step."Jim Yardley, "Praising Pope, Cuban President says he might return to Church." New York Times May 11, 2015, A4. Castro indicated he might return to being a practicing Catholic and that he would attend the Masses that the pope celebrates in Cuba.New York Times, May 11, 2015, A4

Studies appeared that attempted to link Afro-Cuban religions with mental illness.Hernandez-Ramdwar, Camille. "Christine Ayorinde: Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution, and National Identity." Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 31.62 (2006) The campaign for the eradication of racial discrimination in Cuba was used as grounds to forbid the creation of Afro-Cuban institutions because doing so was labeled as racially divisive.

Leadership of Miguel Díaz-Canel Miguel Díaz-Canel came to the post of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (de facto leader) in 2021 with a significant history of advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights. One of the landmark events of his incumbent leadership includes the 2022 Cuban Family Code referendum, which enjoyed vocal support from progressive Christian groups on the island, with whom Díaz-Canel also came to build stronger relationships over years. This was however in contrast to conservative Christian groups, who have opposed the LGBT movement in Cuba and advocate banning abortion in Cuba, which has been legal since 1965.

Christianity

Christianity has played an important role in Cuba's history. The indigenous people of Cuba were colonized by Christopher Columbus a few days after he arrived at the New World in 1492. In 1511, colonization systematically began when the Conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar established the Catholic Church in Cuba with the early priest Fray Bartolomé de las Casas known commonly as "the Protector of the Indians". Long after the establishment of Catholicism came explicit Protestantism: "Protestantism did not permanently take hold in Cuba until the nineteenth century, though since the sixteenth century the country had been constantly visited by pirates, corsairs and filibusters, many of whom were Protestants". The denominations of Catholicism and Protestantism have a significant influence in Cuban history.

Catholicism

The Catholic Church in Cuba is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. The Catholic Church body in Cuba is governed by the Cuban Bishops Conference.

In 2020, the Catholic population of Cuba is estimated at 53.7%.The Association of Religion Data Archives website, Retrieved 2023-07-18 The country is divided into eleven dioceses including three archdioceses. The Catholic Church in Cuba has taken on a more politically active role than in many other countries. It claims to have engaged in discussion with the government on issues such as political prisoners and free-market reforms. Catholics in Cuba have greater religious freedom than those in other Communist countries such as China and Vietnam.

Protestantism