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Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Archbishop’s simple act

brings prisoners to tears

by

2680 days ago
20180329
Roman Catholic Archbishop Jason Gordon washes the feet of convicted prisoner Hilton George, right, who is serving time for armed robbery, during holy mass at the remand yard of the Port-of-Spain prison, yesterday.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Jason Gordon washes the feet of convicted prisoner Hilton George, right, who is serving time for armed robbery, during holy mass at the remand yard of the Port-of-Spain prison, yesterday.

Abraham Diaz

Pris­on­ers were brought to tears yes­ter­day as Ro­man Catholic Arch­bish­op Ja­son Gor­don washed their feet dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tion of the Holy Eu­charist at the Port-of-Spain Prison.

The in­mates prayed for Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and his Cab­i­net, the Op­po­si­tion, led by Kam­la Per­sad-Biss­esar, the prison of­fi­cers, the oth­er in­mates and the sick.

Scrip­tures were read from the Bible books of Ex­o­dus, Psalms, Corinthi­ans and John.

The mood at the prison was trans­formed from one of strict or­der as in­mates smiled broad­ly and hugged the Prison Com­mis­sion­er Ger­ard Wil­son as they sang Bob Mar­ley’s an­them One Love. The event took place in the pris­on­ers’ air­ing yard which was laid out with tents and chairs.

As Gor­don bowed be­fore them pour­ing wa­ter over their feet, tears came to the eyes of few.

Kir­shc­hand Kat­wa­roo, a Hin­du, who is sched­uled to be re­leased to­day, said he was moved by “Je­sus Christ.”

“I am a Hin­du but I was moved by Je­sus Christ. The Arch­bish­op told me to at­tend ser­vice on Fri­day at the Cathe­dral,” he said.

The in­mates sang loud­ly, shook hands and paid avid at­ten­tion dur­ing the ser­vice lis­ten­ing to the words of the Arch­bish­op and the Com­mis­sion­er.

Pris­on­er Dan­i­to Gurly, 34, a mem­ber of the pris­on­er’s mu­si­cal band—Out­fit In­ter­na­tion­al—and one of the lead vo­cal­ists, said the in­mates had po­ten­tial but were ig­nored by so­ci­ety.

Gurly said dur­ing his eight months play­ing with the band they did tours at church­es and oth­er pris­ons.

“I used to sing Karaoke but I got brave here. I want to get back in­to food (busi­ness) but I have a pas­sion for be­ing a coun­cil­lor. It have po­ten­tial here but peo­ple don’t be­lieve in us,” he said.

He said many of the in­mates here do things they will nev­er do on the out­side just to im­press their friends.

Gor­don, who de­liv­ered the homi­ly, gave a brief his­to­ry of the Passover Cer­e­mo­ny with Je­sus and his dis­ci­ples and Moses who went to Egypt to ask for free­dom for the Is­raelites.

He asked the pris­on­ers if they felt as if they were slaves, which drew si­lence at first then a re­sound­ing “Yes.”

“God sent Moses to de­liv­er them, God strikes one peo­ple and de­liv­ers an­oth­er peo­ple,” he said.

He spoke of the Passover meal that was cel­e­brat­ed by Je­sus and his dis­ci­ples and Si­mon Pe­ter who told Je­sus “to wash not on­ly my feet but my hands and my head.”

“What is the dream in your life? What is left un­done in your life? What is left un­done and the dream in your life? What con­tri­bu­tion can you make to so­ci­ety? You can make that con­tri­bu­tion to­day. You can make a dif­fer­ent type of man. This is not the last sto­ry of your life. This is not the last chap­ter you have to dream about,” he said.

Gor­don said by liv­ing that life in prison they could cre­ate this step of hu­mil­i­ty.

He spoke of Nel­son Man­dela, who was in­car­cer­at­ed and went on to be­come pres­i­dent of South Africa. “He was nev­er a pris­on­er, he had a num­ber, but was nev­er a pris­on­er be­cause his mind re­mained free, his heart re­mained free. Dream of the life you will like when you leave here and start liv­ing that life to­day,” he said.

Wil­son said the Arch­bish­op’s ser­vice hum­bled him and he was glad Gor­don could wor­ship with them.

“The Arch­bish­op showed hu­mil­i­ty by wash­ing the feet. That was the hall­mark for me and hum­bled me even more,” he said.

He ad­vised the in­mates to ap­ply them­selves and find a pro­gramme to make a con­tri­bu­tion and change.


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