“Welfare for the Lord and the people of the Lord.”

– Father Arnaldo Bazán

On July 13th, 1958 in the Cathedral of the Diocese of Camaguey, Cuba at the age of twenty-three, Father Arnaldo Bazán was ordained a Priest. Fr. Bazán had spent twelve years in seminary studying for the Priesthood, with his last two years spent studying in Spain. After his Ordination Fr. Bazán was sent as a vicar in a town south of his province and diocese called Santa Cruz del Sur.

Less than a year later, on January 1st of 1959, Fidel Castro assumed political and military control as the prime minister of Cuba. He did so with support from Cuban citizens who no longer wanted their dictator, however, it did not take long for his true intentions to cause trouble for the people. Castro, allied with the Soviet Union, desired to make Cuba a communist country.

As the Catholic Church stood against Castro’s plans, he quickly began persecuting the Church. Catholic schools were taken under government control, dispersing the priests and nuns who worked in them. Many Catholics left fleeing Cuba.

After the United States’ failed attempt to assist Cuban revolutionaries overthrow Castro, in April of 1961 Castro’s continued intention of ruling a communist Cuba and persecution of the Church led to Fr. Bazán and his pastor seeking refuge in Camaguey. They then fled to a parish in Havana, Cuba’s Capital. 

While Fr. Bazán was in Havana, Fidel Castro made the decision to imprison Auxiliary Bishop Boza-Masvidal of the Archdiocese of Havana along with a hundred priests and thirty religious brothers from different congregations. Castro had them exiled from Cuba and deported on a Spanish ship, the Covadonga, which had already been at capacity with several hundred passengers on its regular voyage from Havana to Spain. Traveling without a passport and no idea when he would see his family and homeland again, Fr. Arnaldo Bazán sailed praying for Cuba and freedom.

A year later, after spending time in Spain and then studying Liturgy in Belgium for nine months, Fr. Bazán went to the Dominican Republic upon invitation to serve the needs of a Diocese. 

Father Bazán continued to serve communities in the Dominican Republic for nearly nineteen years. However, after Cuba’s doors opened up in 1979, Fr. Bazán was able to visit his family in Cuba for the first time since being exiled.

After visiting Cuba, Father Bazan decided to come to the United States, feeling called to ‘help make it better.’ So in 1981, Fr, Bazán moved to the United States to work in communities in the Archdioceses of Miami.

Fr. Bazán requested to retire after eighteen years of serving people in the Archdiocese of Miami so he would be able to split his time between communities in the United States and in the Dominican Republic. During his retirement time in the U.S.A. he spent the first six years serving in two parishes in Miami before he began traveling throughout the Diocese of St. Augustine helping communities as requested by the Bishop. 

Throughout his life, Father Arnaldo Bazán has dedicated his vocation to the “welfare for the Lord and the people of the Lord.”

Interviewed on September 7, 2016

J.M.J.