Seized in 1961, Used as a Warehouse, Restored in 2024: A Havana Chapel Becomes a Parish Again

• The Santo Tomás de Villanueva chapel in Havana’s Miramar district was reconsecrated in 2024
• It was confiscated by the Castro government in 1961 and used for storage
• The chapel was returned to the church more than a decade before restoration began
• Catholic Extension and private donors funded the work

A chapel in Havana that had been closed for about 60 years was restored and reconsecrated in 2024, OSV News reported in May. The Santo Tomás de Villanueva campus chapel in the Miramar district is now the parish of Santo Tomás de Villanueva and San Charbel.

The chapel was founded in 1946 by American and European Augustinians as part of a university campus. After the Cuban Revolution it was abandoned, and in 1961 the government confiscated it and used it as a storage facility. The building was returned to the church more than a decade before restoration began.

The work was funded by Catholic Extension, the US-based Catholic fund, together with private donors in Cuba and abroad. The reconsecration drew Miami’s Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García of Havana, Havana Auxiliary Bishop Eloy Ricardo Domínguez Martínez and Father Patrick O’Neill, a former president of St Thomas University in Miami.

“This renovated and restored chapel becomes once again a beacon of light to all who pass by,” Archbishop Wenski said.

Jamaica’s churches have never faced state confiscation on Cuba’s scale, but the Havana story is still a lesson in what happens to church property that stands idle. A building lost for decades can come back, but only with years of work and outside money. For Jamaican congregations holding closed churches, empty halls or unused lots, the priority is to keep titles current, keep buildings secure and in use where possible, and decide early whether a property will be restored, leased or sold, rather than letting neglect decide.

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