Current Events

The dictatorship in Venezuela has fallen….so now comes the question: “Is Cuba the next domino to fall?” And how will it affect Catholics in Cuba and elsewhere?

In March 2026, Cuba faces its most severe crisis in decades, driven by a U.S. oil blockade that has cut off fuel imports—previously supplied largely by Venezuela—following Maduro’s fall earlier this year. Severe blackouts plague the island: massive outages, including from the Antonio Guiteras plant shutdown in early March, have left millions without power for up to 20+ hours daily in places like Havana and Matanzas.

This has triggered protests (almost unheard of in the past), with residents banging pots in the dark (cacerolazos) and some even storming and torching local Communist Party offices amid frustration over shortages, crumbling infrastructure, and economic collapse.

Residents are no longer afraid of speaking out, and fear is the one thing that holds most repressive regimes together.  Without it, they lose power.

U.S. President Trump has intensified pressure, blocking alternative suppliers and floating ideas like a “friendly takeover.” Allies like Senator Lindsey Graham have declared Cuba the next domino to fall (did he borrow our title?), with its regime’s “days numbered” in a post-Venezuela push for regime change in the region. Amid the chaos, President Miguel Díaz-Canel confirmed on March 13 direct talks with the U.S., involving himself and former leader Raúl Castro. The discussions aim to resolve bilateral differences through “dialogue and respect” for sovereignty, with Cuba framing them as urgent to ease the fuel crisis. A related goodwill move released 51 prisoners via Vatican mediation.

While some see this as a sign of desperation and inevitable collapse—echoing the Soviet-era “Special Period”—others note the regime’s historical resilience through concessions rather than full surrender.

To be perfectly clear, Díaz-Canel and the Castro regime are tyrants. Any deals made with them will be pointless. They have imprisoned, tortured, and murdered their own people for over six decades.

Of course, as most know, you cannot negotiate with a terrorist regime and there is really only one choice: either the regime falls and is hopefully replaced by a democratic one, or the repression of the Cuban people continues…along with reprisals for those who dared to confront the government.

The domino teeters: For now, the regime adapts under extreme strain, but to some the outcome remains uncertain in this high-stakes 2026 standoff.

Here at the Catholic Travel Guide we hope (and expect) that this regime will fall and Catholics (as well as the general population) on the island have greater freedom.  In addition to freeing up the Cuban people, the fact that it is only 90 miles from the U.S.

Direct flights from Miami (MIA) to Havana (HAV) typically take around 1 hour, 30 minutes, serviced frequently by U.S. carriers like American Airlines and Delta. Today these flights are primarily Cuban Americans visiting family, alongside authorized U.S. travelers engaged in educational, religious, journalistic, or “Support for the Cuban People” activities….but soon we expect Cuba will probably be a popular pilgrimage destination for many Catholics, since the country has some some important shrines and churches.

You can read more about some of the Catholic places of interest in Cuba here on our site.

Mount Melleray Abbey was a historic Cistercian (Trappist) monastery on the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains near Cappoquin, County Waterford. It was founded in 1833 as the first post-Reformation Cistercian house established in Ireland in the post-Reformation period. It has served as a major Trappist community for nearly 200 years.

It was officially closed as an active monastic community in early 2025. By the time it closed, the community was down to single figures, yet the facilities were still there in a beautiful, peaceful setting.

Now, Ave Maria University is planning to use the famous monastery as a campus, keeping it open for Catholic purposes. Ave Maria University was founded by Tom Monaghan, who created Domino’s Pizza and his known for his Catholic philanthropic works.

Their main campus is Ave Maria, Florida.

According to official shrine sources, over the course of 2025, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, in the interior of São Paulo state, Brazil, welcomed 10,486,118 pilgrims, according to statistics released in the first week of January 2026; a 15 percent increase compared with 2024, when 9,057,885 faithful made the journey to Brazil’s principal Marian sanctuary.

The Shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of Aparecida (Nossa Senhora Aparecida), the principal patroness of Brazil. The devotion traces back to October 1717, when three fishermen (Domingos Martins Garcia, João Alves, and Filipe Pedroso) cast their nets in the Paraíba do Sul River after a fruitless day of fishing. They miraculously recovered a small, dark clay statue of the Virgin Mary in two pieces (body first, then head), after which their nets filled with fish. This event was seen as a miraculous sign, and the statue became known as Our Lady of Aparecida (“the Appeared One”).

Click here to learn more about the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil.

Finland’s first new Catholic school, the Helsinki Catholic School, is set to open in August 2026, following the national curriculum with Catholic values and welcoming students of all beliefs, marking a significant development for the growing Catholic community in the nation.

While there are no existing Catholic schools, Finland provides Catholic religious education in public schools when requested by parents in a municipality request it, alongside other faiths like Lutheranism and Orthodoxy.  Catholic parishes also provide catechesis and sacramental preparation (like First Communion). 

Note:  the word ”first” in some announcements online is not to be understood historically but only in the sense that there is no other catholic school in Finland at the moment. There were a few (but very small) catholic schools already a hundred years ago, and a famous one, the English School was founded in 1945, and remained Catholic until 1995.

The curriculum will follow the Finnish national curriculum, but incorporates Catholic values and a distinct Catholic curriculum for moral/cultural education. Admission is open to all children, regardless of faith, with participation in religious activities being voluntary. The aim is to provide a faith-based education within Finland’s secular system, starting with preschool and grades 1-3.

This new school addresses the needs of a growing Catholic population and fills a gap in faith-based education, as Finland’s strong public system traditionally emphasizes secular education.

In Île-de-France, three new churches are TO BE BUILT, carried by the Chantiers du Cardinal, which have been supporting the development, renovation, and enhancement of the RELIGIOUS HERITAGE of Île-de-France for nearly 100 years.

• The Saint-Colomban church in Val d’Europe, in Seine-et-Marne.

• The Sainte-Bathilde church in Chelles, in Seine-et-Marne, whose inauguration is scheduled for March 2026.

• The Saint-Joseph-the-Benevolent church in Versailles.

Île-de-France is a region in north-central France. It surrounds Paris.

Here the website for Chantiers du Cardinal

In a Dec. 2 statement released by Bishop Michael F. Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, he announced “with profound joy and gratitude to God” that the Vatican had “granted permission for the establishment of a Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Northern Cooke County, Texas, in the Diocese of Fort Worth.”

Calling the news “a moment of extraordinary grace for our local Church,” Bishop Olson explained that the new Carmelite monastery, “the Carmel of Jesus Crucified, will be a place where the beauty of contemplative life radiates outward into the world. Through prayer, silence, work, and sacrifice, the Discalced Carmelite nuns will accompany the faithful and intercede for the needs of our communities.”

The six nuns will come from Carmelite monasteries connected to the Christ the King Association of Discalced Carmelite Monasteries….a federation of Carmelite monasteries across the country. Along with those nuns are expected to come two women in formation for religious life, he said.

The Monastery will begin its life in Texas with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, scheduled for December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, at a temporary monastery location.

We will bring more details once the location is finalized.

Note: This follows the controversy when The Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Arlington, Texas (also in the Diocese of Fort Worth) faced a major dispute with the Fort Worth Diocese, leading to their dismissal from religious life by Bishop Michael Oson, who cited “their own actions,” while the nuns’ supporters formed a foundation to own their monastery, making the nuns tenants, to remove property contention, though the diocese stated they never claimed the property, creating an ongoing situation where the nuns are now linked with the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and the bishop urged Catholics to avoid the monastery.

As you already know, The Holy See considers that the society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has broken away from communion with the Catholic Church.  Although the 1988 excommunication of the four SSPX bishops was remitted in 2009, the SSPX bishops and priests were still unable to exercise any episcopal or priestly ministry in the Catholic Church.
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