The announcement that Father Joseph Harris has been appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Port-of -Spain and that Monsignor Jason Gordon had been elevated to become the Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgetown, Barbados and Kingstown, St Vincent would have brought some joy to the hearts of the Catholic faithful this week.Fr Harris is the parish priest of St Ann's and serves as the vicar for priests. Msgr Gordon was appointed parish priest of Holy Rosary and St Martin de Porres in Gonzales and has been active in outreach projects initiated by the Catholic faithful such as the Living Water Community, the Fountain of Hope, Marian House and the communications arm of the church.Msgr Gordon has always seemed to be more a colleague of the media than the stoic image of a priest and his natural warmth and presence will serve him well in his work in Barbados and St Vincent.He was ordained a priest in 1991 and holds a Masters Degree in Moral and Religious Education and a Doctorate in Pastoral Theology.
Both men have proven themselves sensitive to the unique cultural qualities of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean region, Both priests were public in their support and encouragement of the band Genesis 1 Creation which participated in Carnival this year with a mission to more directly evangelise positive qualities in the festival. Msgr Gordon is also well known for his many years of outreach through the communications initiatives of the local Catholic church.Father Harris' many years in the priesthood have swung between risky mission work in Paraguay to scholarly engagements in Chicago, where he embraced the study of church administration and canon law.
Fr Harris, 70, was ordained in 1968 and holds a Masters Degree in Theology and a Doctorate in Ministry. He has worked in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Paraguay and is fluent in English and Spanish and reads French and Portugese.Fr Harris will assist Archbishop Edward Gilbert until his retirement at the end of December, when he will become not just the tenth Archbishop in the centuries long presence of the Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago, but the second locally born priest to take the role since the 1968 ordination of Archbishop Anthony Pantin.
The much beloved Pantin left behind a presence of compassion and socially aware commonsense and Harris' willingness to engage with his laity and to find well-considered, accommodating solutions to local issues and problems will be crucial to the creation of his own legacy of leadership in the role.Harris will assume the mantle of a church very much in transition, facing real challenges in holding the attention of young churchgoers, meeting the expectations of the traditionalist faithful and attracting new leadership to the pulpits.
The new Archbishop's controversial support of the effort to bring the Catholic way to Carnival by example at street level was a bold signal that he is willing to acknowledge the enormity of the challenges facing his church and the need to interpret the gospel more dynamically to reach the worshippers of tomorrow.His calm responses to the controversy that flared over the Carnival band are reflected in his statements about his future role as Archbishop."The plurality in the Church is no secret," Harris told the Guardian. "It is a family and in every family you will have things that you agree upon and things that we disagree upon, but in this family, the role of the bishop is to hold this family in unity and love every part of it and to give it space to flourish."