Camille Clarke

Ro­man Catholic Arch­bish­op Joseph Har­ris says the rise in homi­cides and oth­er se­ri­ous crimes sit­u­a­tion is "un­ac­cept­able." Har­ris said so yes­ter­day dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at Arch­bish­op's House, Mar­aval Road, Port-of-Spain. He host­ed the con­fer­ence to an­nounce a "March for Je­sus" on Ju­ly 1. He said: "Crime is al­ways un­ac­cept­able. Whether you go down ten per cent, it is un­ac­cept­able. We have to find a way to cor­rect that. There must be a long-term and short-term plan. "They are say­ing the crime rate is down and the mur­der rate is still un­ac­cept­able, since it deals with a lack of re­spect for hu­man per­sons. "We have to re­flect on cas­es and ways to bring back re­spect for the hu­man per­son and on our lives as in­di­vid­u­als and as a na­tion." He said there had to be a plan to deal with fam­i­lies and ed­u­ca­tion. He added: "If young peo­ple are leav­ing school il­lit­er­ate, they will join gangs. We have to find a way to im­prove the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem. "We have to move away from what sep­a­rates us and what we agree on. The church is im­por­tant and to ex­press our faith in Je­sus as a per­son. The mes­sage and val­ues with faith in Je­sus Christ can bring us to­geth­er."

Har­ris said it was im­por­tant, as a peo­ple, to re­flect on 50 years of in­de­pen­dence and give God thanks. He added that the march would be an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­flect on the sit­u­a­tion and the mo­ment and bring back the val­ues of Christ. He said: "Cor­rupt lead­ers come out of a cor­rupt peo­ple. We have to look at our­selves and look at our lives and make sure we live ac­cord­ing to the norms of moral­i­ty, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and de­cen­cy." When asked if this gen­er­a­tion of young peo­ple was lost, he said: "I don't be­lieve they are lost. We have to work with any gen­er­a­tion." How­ev­er, Har­ris said he would not be able to at­tend the march be­cause of a meet­ing in Rome. The pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Con­fer­ence of Church­es and su­per­in­ten­dent of the North Trinidad Cir­cuit of Methodist Church­es, Les­ley George An­der­son, said it was a march for­ward. "I be­lieve it will be the most im­por­tant event of the year es­pe­cial­ly in this coun­try as re­gards crime and deaths on our roads," An­der­son said. He said peo­ple need­ed to be con­sid­er­ate of each oth­er and re­spect one an­oth­er. Oth­er de­nom­i­na­tions and mem­bers of the pub­lic will­ing to take part in the march can meet at three as­sem­bly points at the Croisee, San Juan, at 11 am; Mor­vant Junc­tion at 12 noon or the Jean Pierre Com­plex at 12 noon. Park­ing will be avail­able at the Jean Pierre Com­plex, An­gos­tu­ra/Fer­nan­des Com­plex, MTS Plaza and the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah. An or­ches­tra and choir will start mu­sic at the Sa­van­nah at 11 am and a short cer­e­mo­ny will take place at 2 pm, when the marchers will con­verge.