I write this piece with a deep sense of pride and ad­mi­ra­tion for a man who has served his call­ing with deep de­vo­tion and fi­deli­ty for 60 years. This sparkling ac­com­plish­ment is made more im­por­tant since Bish­op Emer­i­tus Syd­ney Charles was one of the first lo­cal­ly trained priests from the sem­i­nary at Mount St Bene­dict, and al­so be­cause he is my late moth­er's broth­er. I thank God for you, and you'll al­ways be in my prayers, Un­cle Syd­ney."It is not of­ten that peo­ple ful­filled 60 years of com­mit­ment to what they had un­der­tak­en." That was Arch­bish­op Joseph Har­ris pay­ing trib­ute to Bish­op Emer­i­tus Syd­ney An­ice­tus Charles in his homi­ly dur­ing a spe­cial Holy Mass to cel­e­brate the oc­ca­sion at the St Joseph RC Church, St Joseph, last Sun­day.Arch­bish­op Har­ris de­scribed Bish­op Charles as a "holy man," a de­scrip­tion Arch­bish­op Har­ris at­trib­uted to his (Har­ris') fa­ther, who was at one time head­mas­ter of the St Joseph Boys' RC School, Bish­op Charles' al­ma mater. Arch­bish­op Har­ris al­so at­tend­ed that school.

The head of the Ro­man Catholic Church in T&T told the large con­gre­ga­tion of fam­i­ly, friends and wor­ship­pers that "ho­li­ness does not come easy," and on­ly hap­pened through the ac­cep­tance of the cross. He said, "Bish­op Charles' life has shown us the mark of the cross in many ways."The rev­o­lu­tion in Grena­da, which oc­curred while Bish­op Charles was serv­ing there, "was a tremen­dous cross." But Bish­op Charles faced it with deep con­vic­tion, speak­ing "truth to pow­er." It was not an easy time for the bish­op. But his sense of hu­mour al­ways pre­vailed and he lat­er said, "At one time Grena­da had two bish­ops and they both brought Grena­di­ans to their knees..."Arch­bish­op Har­ris said last Sun­day's cel­e­bra­tion was to give thanks to God for "60 years of fi­deli­ty in spite of the cross. He said each one of us as Catholics must ask our­selves, "Am I fol­low­ing the foot­steps of this man, who, in spite of every­thing has been faith­ful?"

He said some would say "yes"–but Arch­bish­op Har­ris said he had a "sneak­ing sus­pi­cion" that for many, when the cross came, they bent a lit­tle. He added, "Even if this hap­pened, Bish­op Charles, who strived to be faith­ful, was an ex­am­ple to peo­ple of faith who "let God's word shape and form their lives, so that God's word makes them in­to oth­er Christs. And be­cause they are like Christ, they be­come the hu­man face of Christ among us. Like Christ, they help us to live the love and mer­cy."

Writ­ing in the com­mem­o­ra­tive book­let, Sis­ter Phyl­lis Wharfe stat­ed, "He (Bish­op Charles) nev­er saw his as­sign­ments as po­si­tions of pow­er or pres­tige. In­deed, this hum­ble ser­vant of God is de­void of all so­cial climb­ing. Ser­vice is the hall­mark of his life, a ser­vice of sac­ri­fice and suf­fer­ing for which he was pre­pared to give his life when threat­ened."Bish­op Charles was one of the first four "in­dige­nous cler­gy" (Arch­bish­op Fin­bar Ryan) and the on­ly one alive. He was or­dained at the Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion on March 7, 1954. He served sev­er­al parish­es in Trinidad, in­clud­ing San Juan, Ch­agua­nas, Cara­pichaima, Ari­ma and the Cathe­dral as vic­ar gen­er­al and ad­min­is­tra­tor. He was named bish­op of St Georges-in-Grena­da on No­vem­ber 18 1974, and or­dained bish­op on Jan­u­ary 26 1975, where he served un­til his re­tire­ment.Through the British ho­n­ours sys­tem, Bish­op Charles was award­ed the Most Ex­cel­lent Or­der of the British Em­pire (CBE) by Queen Eliz­a­beth II, an ac­co­lade he re­ceived with great hu­mil­i­ty.

Ver­non Khelawan is me­dia re­la­tions of­fi­cer of Catholic Me­dia Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (Cam­sel), the of­fi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tions arm of the Arch­dio­cese of Port-of-Spain. Its of­fices are lo­cat­ed at 31 In­de­pen­dence Square. Tele­phone: 623-7620.