The Roman Catholic Bishop in the Diocese of St George, Trinidadian Clyde Harvey has suspended his outspoken priest Fr Gerard Paul for a second time in less than a month.
The letter of suspension from the Bishop was delivered to Fr. Paul at approximately 7.52 a.m. Saturday by Terry Registe, the most senior Court Bailiff on the island.
THE NEW TODAY witnessed Registe handing the letter from the Bishop to Fr. Paul as he walked off the Tyrrel Bay vessel from a trip to the sister isle of Carriacou.
After he accepted the letter on the jetty of the Caricomwharf on the St George’s Port, , Fr. Paul opened the two-page document, slowly read the contents but declined to sign as requested by the Bailiff.
Registe is the same Court Bailiff who served a letter last year on former Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell on behalf of his estranged wife Marietta Mitchell who filed divorce proceedings after their marriage of almost 50 years had broken down beyond repair.
A senior Catholic cleric who has knowledge of the Bishop’s letter said that Harvey informed Fr. Paul that his suspension from the Priesthood has not been restored and that he should not officiate at Sunday’s mass at the Holy Family Church at River Sallee in St Patrick.
He said the Bishop told Fr. Paul that the address he delivered after last Sunday’s Mass to the congregation and then subsequent interviews with the local media amounted to “a breach” of the agreement reached the previous day not to engage in anything that will bring the church into public disrepute.
According to the senior cleric, the head of the local church took the position that the agreement that was brokered is no longer in effect and that the suspension is now “automatically restored.”
In the April 4 initial letter of suspension, the Bishop told Fr Paul that the action was being taken against him because of his “persistent inappropriate behaviour, behaviour unworthy of a priest of the church, even when the cause is just.”
This is an obvious reference to the public utterances of Fr. Paul who accused the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and the local Bishop himself of being “hypocrites for their silence on Israel’s alleged acts of genocide against Palestinians in the war against Hamas on the Gaza strip.
The senior cleric said he understood that in the second letter to Fr Paul, Bishop Harvey instructed that he undergo some form of professional mental analysis in order to be considered for a full restoration to the Priesthood.
There are credible reports that Bishop Harvey has been meeting behind closed doors in the past week with a group of religious faithful in the Catholic Church to look at the Canon Laws with a view to taking the “appropriate action” against the priest for allegedly breaching the deal worked out with two Mediators and former Attorney General Dr. Francis Alexis as a Witness.
The two Mediators – Water Engineer Terrence Smith and female attorney-at-law Shireen Wilkinson – have reportedly called it a day following public statements made on the contentious issue between Paul and Harvey.