The Way Forward

A response to the homily of Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago delivered on Ash Wednesday 2020 

Anyone who accepts and recognises that Trinidad and Tobago society is now in serious crisis will welcome the powerful, honest, moving and enlightening homily delivered by Archbishop Jason Gordon. He made the remarks during the commemorative service in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Trinidad and Tobago Black Power Movement of 26 February 1970, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. 

The Archbishop, in referring to the nation, said: “We have reached far from where we were, but we have not yet reached the promised land.” At the end of his homily, he made a clarion call to the laity and other citizens: “Let us do what we need to build our wonderful nation.” This approach conforms with the perspective of Pope Francis and the progressive direction that the Roman Catholic Church is moving.

As concrete proof of its commitment to a new vision, Pope Francis, in August 2014, lifted the suspension in the Church on “Liberation Theology”, which had manifested when progressive clergy in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1960s and 1970s played a crucial role in the liberation struggles in their countries.

The vision of proponents of this Theology is revealed by Judith Soares in her paper A Future of Liberation Theology. She wrote: “Church activity including doctrine, pastoral work and the substance of the Christian message were to be centred on socio-economic development in the interest of the poor and the disadvantaged.” *(1) 

In Trinidad and Tobago, the Church must now redress the imbalance in its approach, review its perspective on the principle of “Faith and Works” and place, in the future, more emphasis on “Works” while still maintaining its teaching ministry. In effect, it must now live the Word/Spirit.

The leadership of the Church must now lead in the movement to reeducate the laity and the society so that they will awaken conscience, overcome their ignorance, indifference,  racism, tribalism and bigotry; their impatience, anger, rage and temper; their disrespect, selfishness, arrogance, irresponsibility and inflexibility; their lack of courtesy and good manners; their obsession with wealth, hedonism, power and status; and develop moderation, empathy, appreciation, critical thinking, a sense of morality fairness and objectivity, compassion, tolerance, concern and goodwill for others. 

The Church must work harder, with perception to help free the citizens from the exploitation and manipulation by the few. We need to make a fundamental shift from the individualism in which the society is moving to a “we-consciousness”.

We must recognise that All Life is interrelated, interconnected and interdependent. We must see the underlying unity and commonality of humanity. We must make a determined effort to love our neighbours as ourselves. Each person must “see all beings in one’s self and one’s self in All Beings … See God in All, and All in God”. (Advaita Tradition) 

In the same way that the Archbishop used the facilities of the Church to give the homily, the leadership of the local Church must make the facilities of the Church in all parishes a forum for the reeducation of the laity and other citizens.

It must invite and encourage our experts and social activists to attend at these forums to engage in frank, honest and respectful discussions to arrive at solutions so that we could continue the process of building self-reliant communities with educated, efficient activist citizens. 

The discussions must include the following (not in order of priority): 

  1. Education Reform 
  2. Community Policing/Police Clubs 
  3. National Service 
  4. Capitalism vs Cooperative Movement 
  5. Illiteracy and Parenting 
  6. Community Service/Activities 
  7. The Inter-Religious Organization  
  8. Liberation Theology 
  9. Racial Discrimination 
  10. Poverty and Marginalization 
  11. The Tripartite Committee (Labour, Business, Government) 
  12. Abuse of Women and Children 
  13. Reform of the Judiciary 
  14. The Caribbean Court of Justice 
  15. Constitutional Reform (genuine participatory progressive democracy) 
  16. Videos/Print/Carnival and Vulgarity, Pornography (Legal measures – enforcement of the law vs pornography) 
  17. The Environment 
  18. Crime 
  19. Vagrancy 
  20. Cost of Living 
  21. High Cost of Professional Services 

The Church must deepen and expand its involvement in the communities with the specific objective of providing social service, promoting community activities and self-reliance. It must mobilize the citizens to transform the status quo from one of indifference, narrow-mindedness and self-centredness to a progressive participatory democracy with respect for the rule of law, due process, and human rights, and which promotes social justice and equality.

We must achieve the vision of our national anthem and intensify our work to create a society of brotherhood/sisterhood and camaraderie where every creed and race finds an equal place. 

The Church must now become an instrument of change, reeducation and refocus. It must now move to courageous, continuous, determined, permanent and persistent action to achieve this goal.

And it will have to work on its own and jointly with other concerned citizens, organizations and institutions.

In this period of atonement, the Church’s leadership and laity have the bounden duty to work to redress the grievous mistakes of the past, by a new emphasis on “works” actions and deeds. It is time to “walk the walk” or “walk the talk” by increasing its involvement in secular activity. The Church must accept its prophetic mission, mobilize and help us to organize ourselves to achieve our objectives within the framework of a developing democracy. 

The Church must reject any appearance of counterfeit faith and move immediately to take charge. As our moral and spiritual advisor, it must take concrete actions that are calculated to achieve systemic and transformative change in our society. Only this intervention will enable us to achieve the objectives of the national liberation struggle for “peace, bread and justice” in a non-violent manner. 

The models/templates are already available. It is now the duty of the Church’s leadership to wholeheartedly and sincerely acquaint themselves with the knowledge to make a meaningful contribution to the process of change. I recommend the text Race and Nationalism in Trinidad and Tobago by Selwyn D. Ryan as a must-read, and an important first step in the understanding of our nation. 

I am certain that the Church will find a pool of progressive and concerned citizens, institutions and organizations, both of the laity and others, who are awaiting its intervention, especially in collaboration with the Inter-Religious Organization, to offer their voluntary service to this noble cause. They will be relying on the Church to use its good office to provide the framework within which they can participate and do voluntary work. 

The time is now, the clarion call has been made to the nation. Now, we shall observe the weak from the strong; now we will separate the goat from the sheep, the hypocrite from the sincere, the selfless from the selfish, the “foolers” and the “takers” from the “givers” and the “doers”. 

Now we shall see the superficial from the thoughtful. We shall see those who prefer to be judgemental, self-righteous, to blame and be inactive, from those who seek to understand, to be humble, to be empathetic, and to find solutions.

Now we shall see those who emphasize tradition, rituals, piety, formality and correctness and neglect meaningful works/deeds/actions. They will be set apart from those who stress works/deeds/actions, live the Spirit/Word and also participate in the rituals to enable them to receive the knowledge and guidance, to maintain focus, to remember, to reaffirm, to fulfil their duty, and to congregate in genuine fraternity, giving praise to God for this mystery and miracle of life. 

Let us now heed the call to action and reinvigorate the movement of Jah’s children, to continue the struggle of humanity, to achieve spiritual consciousness awareness and liberation, and to free ourselves from the false pretenders, manipulators, deceivers, and exploiters in sheep’s clothing who work hard to keep us in ignorance, distraction and slumber in order to promote their own selfish and self-serving agendas. 

Note: *(1) A Future for Liberation Theology- Judith Soares Peace Review Volume 20 No. 4 DOI. Published online 25 November 2008. 

Read the full homily in the Trinidad Express trinidadexpress.com/opinion/columnists/forgive-the-church/article_95e21fc6-59b6-11ea-9f06-6f19189de43b.html(opens in a new tab)