By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
Photographer: Courtesy
A group of Children of Father Camiñas, now grandparents, unveiled the bust honoring the Franciscan friar who helped more than 4,000 Cuban minors who traveled without their parents to Spain in the 1960s and 1970s ,at the Ermita de la Caridad in Miami April 25, 2024.
MIAMI | The memory of the Franciscan Antonio Camiñas López will always remain at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami.
On April 25, the so-called children of Father Camiñas - who today are grandparents - fulfilled their dream of paying homage to him by placing a bust in his memory on the grounds of the shrine.
About 80 people gathered outside the Shrine and expressed their gratitude to the Cuban Franciscan who between 1966 and 1972 received some 4,000 Cuban children who traveled alone to Spain, before they turned 15, in order to avoid the compulsory military service imposed by the Castro revolution.
Javier Fernández, administrator of the shine, invited different people to address brief words to those present. Behind him was the bust that had not yet been revealed. Julio Cesar Cespedes, member of the Children of Father Camiñas organization, said it was a day, 55 years later, fulfilled a cherished dream.
Adalberto Socas, president of the Children of Father Camiñas organization, commented that it was rightful to honor the Franciscan friar and that was the reason for this tribute.
Margarita Rodríguez read a brief biography of her uncle, Father Camiñas, whom she remembers as a cheerful and humble man.
Photographer: Courtesy
A commemorative plaque accompanying the bust of Father Antonio Camiñas, which was placed at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami April 25, 2024.
"He would come to my mom's house and cook Spanish dishes. He would call his friends and ask them to bring musical instruments and he would throw huge parties at the house in Westchester," she said in an interview.
Father Federico Capdepón, a retired priest from Miami, was still a seminarian when he worked with the friar for two years in Madrid, welcoming the Cuban children whom he had now met again as grandparents. Reading from a plaque under the bust, he recognized Father Camiñas as “guardian angel of thousands of Cuban children,” and he acknowledged that "I cried with you when I heard you crying at night and longing for your parents.”
Father José Luis Menéndez, at the time a seminarian and later ordained a priest in Madrid, had created an organization to help Cubans.
During the ceremony, the current pastor of Corpus Christi said that talking about the memories of Cuba "always opens a wound that will not close until Cuba is free." He had a few words of gratitude for Spain, "our motherland. A country that never sees Cubans as foreigners but as independent children who live in another house. And that is why Father Camiñas was able to get the camps opened to shelter the Cuban children."
Photographer: Courtesy
A group of Children of Father Camiñas, now grandparents, pose for a photo in front of the bust of the Franciscan friar at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami April 25, 2024. With them from right are; Father José Luis Menéndez, pastor of Corpus Christi in Miami; Father José Espino, rector of the Shrine; and also in the picture is Father Federico Capdepón, a retired priest from Miami.
After unveiling the bust, which was sculpted by Fernando de las Casas, Father José Espino, rector of the Shrine, blessed it with a brief prayer, and many of those present posed for photographs. All were united in the 8 p.m. Eucharist under the gaze of the image of Our Lady of Charity.
Help for Haiti
Another tribute that the Children of Father Camiñas are undertaking in honor of the Franciscan friar is raising funds for the "Képoze For Haiti" project, which helps to improve the quality of life of children and young people in Grand-Bassin, Fort Liberté, Haiti.
About 100 families have received equipment that provides electricity for about 10 hours with connecting cables for telephones and fans. A sample of this equipment was delivered during a Mass at Corpus Christi parish in Miami on March 10.
Water wells have also been installed for domestic use and to irrigate coffee plants. "It is a unitary development project with clean water, electricity, food and education at all levels," said Father Capdepón, founder of the Képoze For Haiti project.
Photographer: Courtesy
Dozens of people gathered at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami April 25, 2024, to unveil the bust of Father Antonio Camiñas. He received some 4,000 Cuban children who traveled to Spain without their parents in the late 1960s and early 1970s."
