Rise and follow me

A call that sent a young man packing

by Elisabeth Román

When the Cuban revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959, Ovidio Ortega Lemús was a devout Catholic living with his parents in the Caribbean city of Havana. With communist rule also came the persecution of the Catholic Church. It was under these stressful conditions that Ortega heard God’s calling—a call he kept secret, as his only brother had become a leader of the Communist Party.

Talks of government and politics in the Ortega Lemús home prevailed over anything that had to do with God or religion. In the early 1960s, at the height of the church’s persecution in Cuba, Ortega knew that if he wanted to follow his calling he would have to leave the family he loved and his country.

With the help of his parish priest, he quietly began his quest to leave Cuba, an ordeal that would take him to Panama. He owned an old bicycle, which he pedaled every day to the parish carrying a small paper bag containing items of clothing he would store in an old suitcase at the parish until it was time to leave Cuba.

He shared his plans only with his mother, who was recovering from cancer surgery. “My mother told me to leave Cuba because it was God’s will. My father, on the other hand, believed that if you were born in Cuba, you had to die in Cuba,” says Ortega. “Of course, we had to keep my plans a secret from my older brother because if he found out, he had the power to stop me from leaving.”

Ortega departed Cuba with his mother’s blessings and prayers. “My brother didn’t find out until two weeks later that I had left. He sent me a letter insulting me, calling me a bad son because I had abandoned my sick mother and that he never wanted to hear from me again,” he says.

Years later his brother forgave him and wanted to visit him. The Cuban government denied the request because he was a member of the Communist Party, so he resigned from the party and it brought him closer to Ortega.

Through the years Father Ovidio has administered the sacraments of Baptism, Communion, and Marriage to his brother’s children and grandchildren.