Cuba Officials Visit Adventist Seminary, Highlight Long-standing Collaboration

Maranatha Volunteers International leaders and Cuba Religious Affairs officials enjoy a light moment during the latters’ welcome to Cuba Adventist Theological Seminary in Santiago de las Vegas, Havana, April 18. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

“You give us a lot of work,” religious affairs leader jokingly tells Maranatha leaders.

April 29, 2025 | Havana, Cuba | Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review

When Caridad Diego Bello, head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, began her tenure more than three decades ago, she found a to-do list of pending projects coming down all the way from notes from Ernesto “Che” Guevara. One of them said, “Assess the possibility of authorizing Seventh-day Adventists to have a theological seminary.”

Now, after her more than three decades working in religious affairs, Diego has attended multiple inaugurations and church events, including the Cuba Adventist Theological Seminary (CATS) groundbreaking ceremony in Santiago de las Vegas, Havana, in 1995. There she met former General Conference president Robert Folkenberg and former Inter-American Division president Israel Leito, who, she said, “always showed special affection for Cuba.” Through the years Diego has worked with three Cuban Union Conference presidents, including Aldo Pérez Reyes, who has led the Adventist Church in the island for the past 15 years.

Leira Sánchez Valdivia, in charge of all Protestant and Evangelical Christian denominations in Cuba, inspect some of the repair and paint projects in the school cafeteria on April 18. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

But through the regular changes of Adventist Church leaders, there has been one constant: her relationship and friendship with Maranatha Volunteers International president Don Noble and other ministry leaders. During all these years, regional church leaders shared, almost every Adventist Church project across Cuba has been facilitated and led by Maranatha, a volunteer- and donor-based supporting ministry based in the U.S. They even funded the construction of CATS.

Supporting the People

On April 18, Diego and two other religious affairs officials stopped by once more to meet Maranatha and the country Adventist Church leaders. The visit, which took place in conjunction with a volunteer-based project rollout organized by Maranatha at the school, highlighted the long-standing collaboration between the country government and the Adventist Church organization and its lay-led supporting ministries.

Maranatha vice president Kenneth Weiss (left) greets Caridad Diego Bello, head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, on April 18. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

“I want to thank each one of the Maranatha leaders and all of you for supporting the Adventist work in Cuba and, as a result, supporting the Cuban people,” Diego said. “People who attend a church are believers, and as such, they are also part of our people. We have seen a church that is honest, sincere, that follows values, that has grown, and that is part of the 1,850 religious organizations and fraternities across Cuba.”

She also highlighted the reach of the Adventist Church in Cuba. “It’s impressive,” she said. “You are everywhere; there’s no county you haven’t reached!”

“You [Adventists] give us a lot of work,” quipped Caridad Diego Bello, head of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. “But we want to keep working together.” [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

Story of a Dream

In the next few minutes Diego recounted how former Cuban Union Conference president Daniel Fontaine came to see her one day in the mid-1990s. Fontaine talked to her about Maranatha, which, he said, could help Adventists on the island have new churches.

“Tell me what your ideas are,” Diego remembers she told Fontaine.

“I have them right here,” Fontaine replied. “We want to build at least 100 church buildings.”

Cuban Union Conference president Aldo Pérez Reyes introduces the visitors from the Office of Religious Affairs of the Cuba government, with whom he has interacted during several initiatives and projects of the Adventist Church in that country. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

“One hundred churches! Really? Let’s start small,” she advised.

Fontaine agreed. “This is not a one-year project,” he told her. “Let’s do it little by little.” The project ended up with 114 new Adventist churches in Cuba. And as of early 2025, Maranatha had built or completed major renovations in more than 200 Adventist church buildings across the island, its leaders reported, including the flagship Cardenas Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Matanzas Province.

The Visit

Noble, Maranatha vice presidents Kenneth Weiss and Karen Godfrey, and a team of volunteers—several of them visiting Cuba for the first time—welcomed the religious affairs team from the Cuban government.

A Maranatha volunteer asks a question during the Q&A session after Caridad Diego Bello’s presentation at Cuba Adventist Theological Seminary on April 18. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

“It’s so nice to see you again, after so many years working together,” Noble told Diego and her team. “And we appreciate that each one of you has taken the time to visit us.”

Together with Diego came Leira Sánchez Valdivia, who oversees all Protestant and Evangelical Christian denominations in Cuba; and Eloísa Valdés Pérez, head of the administrative office of the Office of Religious Affairs of the Council of Ministers of Cuba. The three of them have been instrumental in moving building and renovation applications forward, securing construction permits, authorizing the clearance of containers arriving with food and construction materials through customs, and supporting religious visa applications to volunteer groups visiting the island for outreach or evangelistic initiatives. It is something that Pérez stressed as she introduced the visitors to the group of Maranatha volunteers repairing and repainting CATS.

Cardenas Seventh-day Adventist Church on its official inauguration day in April 2017. Caridad Diego Bello and other officials who were instrumental in securing the relevant permissions attended the inauguration. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

“Some people ask me how the nature of the relationship between the [Adventist] Church and the government of Cuba is,” Pérez said. “Let me say that we have a very good relationship, open communication, and we get along well. And I think the presence of these ladies here today show that the relationship has been maintained for many years.”

Serving the People

During her remarks to the group, Diego emphasized how rewarding it is to know that CATS has grown and been used to train hundreds of Adventist pastors to serve across the island and beyond. “You [Adventists] give us a lot of work,” she quipped. “But we want to keep working together.”

The church building on campus that Maranatha Volunteers International built with government permission and that General Conference president Ted N. C. Wilson inaugurated in 2011. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

Diego also called everyone involved to keep working on behalf of others. Drawing on her experience, she said that she learned how important is to find your place among your people to serve your country and the world. “It’s not just giving from your leftovers but sharing all that you have,” she told volunteers. “And this is what I see you doing here as you came to serve the people of Cuba on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. . . . My wish is that when you leave, you might take a little bit of Cuba and its wonderful people in your heart.”

Maranatha Volunteers International is a nonprofit supporting ministry that is not operated by the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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