Gran Couva – 1962 - present

The new, modern-style church in Gran Couva was blessed by Archbishop Finbar Ryan on February 4, 1962 . In his homily, the Archbishop exhorted parents of the area to send their children to church. Good advice.

The reforms of Vatican II followed the opening of the church. If many of the older parishioners were bemused at the removal of Latin and some of the other changes, they kept their peace and continued to come to Mass.

After the storm of changes of Vatican II, the very real storm of Hurricane Alma passed through the parish on August 14, 1974 . No one had paid it much heed the day before since hurricanes always miss Trinidad ! But this one hit Central Trinidad with a vengeance.

The cocoa plantations were flattened by falling trees; houses lost their roofs; electricity, water and telephone services were out for weeks afterward. The roof of the presbytery in Gran Couva was damaged and was abandoned by the parish priest Vincent Kennedy OP.

Fr Reginald Ging OP most generously put up Fr Kennedy and the parish records in the nearby Tortuga presbytery for the next couple of years. The Gran Couva presbytery was never rebuilt and what remained was eventually destroyed in a fire.

In 1979, during the short stay of acting parish priest, Austin Milner, Mamoral was adopted from Carapichaima parish in exchange for Chickland. This suggestion had been around for 30 years or so and reflected the changes in the road and transportation network since the early days of the parish.

St Catherine's Church in 1976. File photo

Actually, Mamoral had originally been ministered to by the Gran Couva parish priest but from circa 1913, when their first chapel was built, they were passed to the Chaguanas parish.

The exchange with Carapichaima reduced the (still considerable) amount of driving a parish priest has to do, but Gran Couva remains off the beaten track where public transportation is concerned.

It was around this time too that the Laurie family donated a residence in Tabaquite for use by the priest, as nothing had been done to replace the presbytery. Eventually, this house was demolished and the present parish hall was built on the site, completed in April 1998.

Fr Michael O'Connor, in April 1979, became the last in a long line of Dominican parish priests of Gran Couva. But from 1991, the Dominican Sisters were established in the parish. On April 28 of that year, the St Catherine's Centre for Integral Human Development was opened on the site of the demolished presbytery.

Over the last 20 years, priests who have served the parish include Frs Lennox Mc Phillip CSSp, Gerald Farfan CSSp, Robert Llanos, Joseph Ralph OP, Michael Makhan and Clifford Graham. The present parish priest – the beloved Fr Christopher Lumsden - began his tenure in April 1999.

As the parish celebrates its century, one can reflect on the many changes that have occurred. The original few dozen large cocoa estates have, at last count, dwindled to three. The others have been abandoned, or sub-divided and sold.

Gran Couva has gone from being among the richest parishes to the other extreme end of the scale. But even so, the parish is again expanding.

The good people of the village of Los Attars have, on their own initiative, started planning and raising funds for the erection of their own chapel. Land has been donated by the Guisseppi family and the chapel will seek the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe – the steep hills of Los Attajos reminding one of the steep hills of the site of the apparition in Mexico .

In this way, the parishioners of Gran Couva enter their second century in faith and hope.