I get the impression America is a highly religious country. In most western nations, religion plays a much smaller role in the lives of the people. It's not that they are necessarily atheists or agnostics, it's just that most people spend very little time and effort in organized worship, even if they do believe in God.

I know most of the Cubans I knew growing up were nominally Catholic, (I was actually baptized!) but I can't think of anyone we knew who went to Mass regularly. Usually it was just on big religious occasions and festivals, and even then, it was mostly elderly women. I don't recall ever seeing anyone in Tampa actually cross themselves, not even at funerals. Occasionally you might see a religious medal worn as jewelry, or a home shrine to the Patron Saint of Cuba, the Cobre Virgin of Charity, but even then this was mostly grandma's department, and she often mixed the Catholic rites with a little Santeria voodoo. Cubans are not religious but they are often quite superstitious, and the Church looks the other way.

I asked my cousin Rudy about this and he said it was because the Catholic Church sided with the Spanish Crown during the Wars of Independence, and the people never really forgave them. Even today, the priests and nuns are usually Spanish, not Cuban. The wars were very brutal, hundreds of thousands died and the Spaniards were ruthless, Cuba was their last colony in the New World and they were determined to hang on to it at all costs.

And I do recall that when I was growing up, Cubans, both in the old country and the US, were not shy about getting divorces or abortions. Divorce was not illegal in Cuba, and abortions, although not strictly legal, were a lot easier to get than here.