In the light of the devastating fire which destroyed the People's Mall and several other business places in downtown Port of Spain on Saturday, April 9, Vicar General, Msgr Christian Pereira issued the following statement on Saturday afternoon:

“On behalf of the Roman Catholic Community, I express deep solidarity and offer prayerful support to all persons affected by the tragic devastation of a section of our capital city. I specifically extend a hand of solidarity to the owners of business places on the “People's Mall” and surrounding areas and their families; to the employees at these places and their families who have been seriously affected by the fire on Saturday morning.

I extend our support and prayer to the Anglican Community on the damage done to their historic Cathedral building.

I congratulate the Fire Services personnel who struggled with limited resources to control the fire and to prevent further devastation; I thank the security personnel (Police & Army and others) who worked in difficult circumstances to control the curious crowd of persons desiring to be near to the scene.

I thank the personnel of the electronic media who sought to keep the nation informed and abreast of the disaster.

I call on the Government and the National Community to use this experience as a call to greater human solidarity. I trust that all of us working together can address issues of national safety and security for all our people.

I ask that we all refrain from judgments and opinions that can undermine our solidarity and may hamper the appropriate authorities from doing their work.

Once again, let us together find ways to make this nation, our capital city and all our communities, secure and developed places where all our people can care for, live and work with each other to make this truly the blessed land we know it can be.

I ask that prayer be offered by everyone for us to find the divine guidance and courage to address this challenge together.

Msgr Christian Pereira, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Port of Spain