When coad­ju­tor Arch­bish­op Joseph Ever­ard Har­ris is in­stalled as the tenth Arch­bish­op of Port- of-Spain, dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at the Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion next Thurs­day, his im­me­di­ate pre­de­ces­sor Arch­bish­op Gilbert will not be in at­ten­dance. Arch­bish­op Gilbert, who has been ill for sev­er­al weeks, is sched­uled to un­der­go surgery in New York in the com­ing days. He was due to re­tire on De­cem­ber 26, the day he turns 75. In the ab­sence of Arch­bish­op Gilbert, Fr Daniele Lies­si, sec­re­tary to the Nun­cia­ture, will as­sist with the In­stal­la­tion, in the pres­ence of the cler­gy, re­li­gious and laity. The Mass of In­stal­la­tion be­gins at 5 pm.

Fr Har­ris, aged 69, was or­dained coad­ju­tor Arch­bish­op last Sep­tem­ber 14 by Arch­bish­op Gilbert dur­ing an im­pres­sive cer­e­mo­ny at the Cathe­dral at­tend­ed by a host of bish­ops from the An­tilles Epis­co­pal Con­fer­ence (AEC), lo­cal re­li­gious and mem­bers of the laity from parish­es across the Arch­dio­cese. At the cer­e­mo­ny of in­stal­la­tion tak­ing place on the Cathe­dral's feast day the Solem­ni­ty of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion, Co-Ad­ju­tor Arch­bish­op Har­ris will be­come Arch­bish­op Har­ris and will im­me­di­ate­ly as­sume full ju­ris­dic­tion over the Arch­dio­cese, re­plac­ing Arch­bish­op Gilbert. It is hoped that Arch­bish­op Gilbert will re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go af­ter his re­cov­ery for an ap­pro­pri­ate farewell af­ter his ten years of ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to the Arch­dio­cese.