Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation from the pastoral government of the Diocese of Santísimo Salvador de Bayamo and Manzanillo (Cuba), presented by Monsignor Álvaro Julio Beyra Luarca upon reaching his 80 years, and has appointed as the new bishop of the diocese the priest Osmany Massó Cuesta, until now vicar general of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba.
The appointment, made public by the Holy See, places at the head of this eastern Cuban diocese a presbyter with extensive pastoral and formative experience, in a context marked by scarcity of resources, the country’s social difficulties, and the delicate role of the Church in Cuban public life.
A priest trained in Cuba and Mexico
Mons. Osmany Massó Cuesta was born on December 18, 1976, in Santiago de Cuba. He studied Philosophy at the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary in Havana and studied Theology at the Salesian Theological Institute “Cristo Resucitado,” in Tlaquepaque, Guadalajara (Mexico), a reference institution for Salesian theological training in Latin America.
He was ordained a priest on July 25, 2005, in the Salesian Society of San Juan Bosco. Ten years later, in 2015, he was incardinated in the metropolitan archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba, thus moving from the Salesian religious sphere to the diocesan clergy.
Extensive pastoral and governance experience
Over nearly two decades of ministry, Massó Cuesta has held numerous pastoral roles, both in urban parishes and diocesan shrines. He was a parish vicar in Camagüey between 2005 and 2007, and later parish priest of San Juan Bosco in La Víbora (Havana), as well as responsible for youth pastoral care in those same years.
He served as parish priest of Cristo del Buen Viaje in Havana between 2009 and 2012, and later of the parish of Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, the diocesan shrine of Camagüey. After his incardination in Santiago de Cuba, he was parish priest of Cristo Rey between 2015 and 2021, a period in which he also held the position of spiritual director of the Major Seminary San Basilio Magno.
Since 2021, he has been parish priest of San Antonio María Claret in Santiago de Cuba and, since 2022, vicar general of the archdiocese, a role that has placed him at the core of the diocesan pastoral government.
An appointment in a delicate context
The Diocese of Bayamo-Manzanillo, located in one of the country’s most impoverished regions, faces significant pastoral, social, and vocational challenges. The Church in Cuba maintains a discreet but significant presence, called to spiritually sustain the population amid a prolonged economic crisis and strong structural limitations.
The profile of the new bishop—with experience in youth pastoral care, priestly formation, and diocesan governance—points to continuity in the style of pastoral closeness, institutional prudence, and attention to the internal life of the Church, characteristics typical of the Cuban episcopate in recent decades.