The Cuban regime prevented the priest Jorge Luis Pérez Soto say goodbye to a patient who was admitted in a serious condition in a hospital in Havana.
Pérez Soto, parish priest of San Francisco de Paula, in the Diez de Octubre municipality, went to the Manuel Fajardo Hospital, after the relatives of a patient who is in the ICU asked him for the sacrament of Anointing.
"I have been denied entry because it is prohibited. Certainly I have not been mistreated beyond the denial of a right," he denounced in his Facebook.
"I understand the seriousness of the care that the sick deserve. There are ways to properly enter or exit a place like this. If not, witness the medical student who came out right in front of me," he added.
The priest questioned whether religious freedom in Cuba does not include the possibility for people to request the sacraments of Faith for their dying relatives and for them to be spiritually and adequately accompanied by a minister of the Church.
He also commented on the seriousness of denying spiritual aid to a person in a probably final state and assured that It's not the first time it's happened.
"So, is it something institutional or personal?" he asked.
"Meanwhile, a sick person, who is more than a body to treat because he has an immortal soul to watch over, struggles with the end of this earthly existence. God is merciful. He will assist him Himself. May He also deign to assist with his mercy to those who violate his religious rights at this hour," he concluded.
This priest has suffered other times from the siege of the Castro authorities.
In February 2022, They prohibited him from entering the University of Havana for an event with Cardinal Beniamino Stella, envoy of Pope Francis, even though he had been invited to the event by the Church.
"I was excluded from the list by 'other' people," he denounced.
However, Pérez Soto then assured that he was "happy" about that, and also very happy and proud to be a son of the Holy Catholic Church.
In 2020, during a Sunday mass, he assured that "when a ruler is not willing to resign, to get out of the way, he is a tyrant" and that "no ruler is above his people".
"No Caesar is placed by God in this world. Political authority is not above the people," he added.
Cuba and Nicaragua are the only Latin American countries included on the United States blacklist on religious freedom.
In January, the State Department identified a total of 12 nations "of particular concern for having perpetrated or tolerated particularly serious violations of religious freedom," according to a statement issued by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.
The other countries are Burma, People's Republic of China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Furthermore, the government agency's annual report on International Religious Freedom stated that the Cuban regime intensified repression against Christian leaders and activists during 2022.
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