(ANS – Santa Clara) – On Monday 15 July, at Santa Clara in Cuba, on the occasion of the anniversary of the foundation of the city, a museum was inaugurated containing various objects belonging to the Servant of God, Fr José Vandor. Fr Vandor was a Hungarian Salesian who went as a missionary to Cuba in 1936, and remained there until his death on 8 October 1979.

The inauguration took place after a Mass in the Church of Carmen at which Bishop Arturo González Amador presided. The attendance included Signor Zsolt Király, the Consul from the Hungarian Embassy in Cuba, and Fr Miguel Ángel Fernández, Delegate in Cuba of the Provincial of the Antilles, as well as other Salesian and Diocesan priests.

The museum is located in the room where Fr Vandor lived for almost 25 years. He was known throughout the city as a man of peace, an exemplary priest, a man of deep union with God. With his personality, spirituality and pastoral creativity, he left a profound mark on the Diocese of Santa Clara.

He was much sought after as spiritual director. His kindness and friendliness meant that his heart was always open to young people and adults. The process for his beatification and canonization began ten years ago. It is now at the Roman stage and it is expected that the Positio super virtutibus will be submitted soon.

It is hoped that the museum will make the figure and the message of this Son of Don Bosco better known in the city and in the whole of Cuba. It will serve as a place of pilgrimage where the few simple things that belonged to the Servant of God can be seen, and where people can pray and ask for graces through his intercession.

At present there are five Salesian centres in Cuba with a total of 20 confreres.

Published 18/07/2013