Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny greet each other at the Sign of Peace. Photo: Raymond Syms

Archbishop Joseph Harris has reiterated that Catholic schools were not for Catholics only.

In the homily at a Mass last Sunday to close the year-long 175^th anniversary celebration of the arrival here of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny (SJC), the Archbishop recalled that the then bishop had invited the Sisters to Trinidad in 1836 to educate women of “all classes, of all religions”. Today, he said, many were calling for Catholic schools to be for Catholics only but “in a multicultural society like ours it is not only Catholics who need to be taught and shown by the example of lives how to set priorities. All of us need it whether we are Catholics or not”.

When the People’s Partnership Government took over the reins of power in May 2010, it included among its slate of ministries the new Ministry of the People and Social Development. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar promised then that this ministry would bring an end to the sight of scores of angry placard-bearing persons, blocking roads to bring their plight to Government’s attention. The new ministry would deal with issues before they escalated. The protests have continued unabated.

Plans for the Episcopal ordination of Bishop-elect Kenneth Richards on Wednesday (February 8) are “moving on smoothly” and the liturgy will have a distinctive “Caribbean flavour”, said Fr George Williams, chair of the eight-member planning committee. Bishop-elect Richards, a former Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Jamaica, will be ordained bishop of the diocese of St John’s-Basseterre at the Holy Family Cathedral in St John’s, Antigua. He will be installed at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Basseterre, St Kitts, a day later.