The United States is prepared to provide $100 million in humanitarian assistance to Cuba, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on May 13.
Facing Arrest, Cuban Christian Influencers Continue Call for Freedom
Ernesto Ricardo Medina began filming short videos with friends in early 2024 from a small room, or cuartico, of his home in Holguín, Cuba. By 2026, he had become one of the foremost Christian voices speaking out against the Cuban government.
Seeing Cubans as victims of assault
This week the big news is that the United States and Cuba are in high-level talks. Donald Trump brags: “I have the honor of taking Cuba. … I can do anything I want with it.” These comments follow earlier messages…
US congregations appeal for peace with Cuba
Thirteen mainly Baptist congregations in the United States have issued a “Plea for Peace with Cuba” that describes a “moment of exceptional urgency” in the Caribbean nation. “We sound this call as those who have walked with and seen the…
Pope Leo Sounds Alarm Over U.S. Standoff With Yet Another Country
Pope Leo said on Sunday he was deeply concerned about rising tensions between the United States and Cuba, and he called for “sincere and effective dialogue” to prevent violence and further suffering for the Cuban people.
The stilling power of Advent‘s drama
The photo below is not an award-winner, like those of so many highly publicized contests. But it will from this day forward shape my Advent imagination. This photo features Wanda Hernández Murga, coordinator of the Kairos Center, a ministry of…
BWA, CBF and ABCUSA working together on Caribbean aid
The Baptist World Alliance and its partners must help rebuild Caribbean communities devastated by Hurricane Melissa and speak up about the human causes of catastrophic storms, said Karl B. Johnson, chairman of the Baptist World Alliance. “We have to commit…
Authoritarian rule is ‘common denominator’ in religious persecution, USCIRF says
Authoritarian rule is the “common denominator” in the worsening of religious persecution around the world, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its 2025 annual report. Last year, totalitarian regimes widened the direct oppression of minority faiths in…
Pope welcomes Cuba’s prisoner release following talks with Vatican as part of long-standing dialogue
Pope Francis on Sunday hailed the release of Cuban prisoners as a “gesture of great hope” that he prayed would be undertaken elsewhere, as he welcomed an agreement the Vatican helped facilitate as part of a three-way dialogue with Washington…
Biden’s Cuba moves likely to be short-lived
While outgoing President Joe Biden’s eleventh-hour changes in U.S.-Cuba policy are being condemned by hard-liners as a capitulation to the Communist nation 90 miles from the Florida Keys, longtime advocates for the shifts are saying they are too little, too…
Church bodies press Biden on Cuba
Three Baptist groups are among 20 U.S.-based church bodies urging President Joe Biden to make major changes in bilateral relations with Cuba, including its removal from the State Sponsors of Terrorism List at the U.S. Department of State. In a…
Four Cuban Baptist groups find common ground in medical ministry
Four Cuban Baptist groups are launching a medical ministry both to address the nation’s health care crisis and to help overcome theological differences that divide them, according to an official with the Baptist World Alliance. BWA President Tomás Mackey and…