Faith and tradition in Cuba

Like many Santeria practitioners, Mola is also a Roman Catholic who goes to church twice a month.

She is delighted that Pope Francis will visit the Caribbean island on September 19 to 22. But she would like the pontiff to give formal recognition to the role of Santeria in Cubans' spiritual lives.

"Catholicism is present in all manifestations of Santeria," said Mola, a teacher at a daycare centre in Havana. “In the end, they have the same purpose: getting closer to God.”

About 60 percent of Cuba's 11 million people are baptised Catholic, the Church says, but experts say at least an equal number practice Santeria or another form of Afro-Cuban religion.

Santeria combines elements of Catholicism with the Yoruba religion and many Cubans identify with both traditions and their ceremonies.

The Church has been tolerant of Santeria but remains wary. The Vatican does not recognise Santeria as a religion and Francis has no events scheduled with practitioners.

"The Catholic Church has no role in Santeria," said Dionisio Garcia, the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and president of the Cuban bishops' conference.

Though monotheistic, the Yoruba religion that bore Santeria shares no common ancestry with Christianity, experts say. Catholic priests worry that some of those who attend Mass in Cuba do not accept Jesus or recognise the Virgin Mary, which are tenets of the Catholic Church.

"Being Catholic and being a Santero is not a contradiction for them. It is for us," said Gilbert Walker, a priest from Mississippi who has been working in Cuba for 12 years. "Although the Santeria religion uses Christian symbols, they're empty of Christian content."

Walker says up to half of his churchgoers in Old Havana practice Santeria. He says he often finds decapitated pigeons, meringues, coconuts and other ceremonial offerings to Obatala, the name of one "orisha," a Yoruba sacred being that has a Catholic saint as a counterpart.

"Santeros," a term often used to refer to all believers but technically reserved for those who have completed a year-long rite of passage, choose how much of each religion to follow.

Mola recited opening prayers to summon the spirits in Spanish and the Yoruba language, ending with the Lord's Prayer.

For five hours, a four-piece band pounded out Yoruba rhythms while believers danced African and salsa steps - whatever the spirits inspired them, she said.

Then the ceremony ended as casually as it had begun, without applause or fanfare.

Home ceremonies pick up where church worship leaves off, Mola said. But while Santeria followers easily venerate both the orisha and the saint they see before them, Cuba's clergy perceive this as a confusion of the two religions.

Against the odds, Santeria devotees hope Pope Francis might change the Church's outlook, given the changes the first Latin American pontiff has introduced at the Vatican since he assumed the office in 2013.