A life of extraordinary wisdom in service of God and people

On August 14, Alejandro Felipe Paula (1937–2018) passed away in Curaçao at the age of 81.

Born and raised in Curaçao, Paula attended the Seminary of St John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs, Mount St Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, between 1954 and 1958. He then continued his preparation for the priesthood in the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, and Italy, but in 1963 he decided to quit the process. He returned to Curaçao in 1964. In 1966, he married a Trinbagonian called Monica Beddoe (Trinidad and Tobago 1937—Curaçao 2017).

While Paula was a Curaçaoan ‘to de bone’, he always considered Trinidad and Tobago to be his second homeland. In his autobiography titled The Cry of My Life (2005), he described his time at ‘the Mount’ and the people there who influenced him with much appreciation, humour, and love, including then Rector of the Seminary, Fr Ildefons Schroots OSB, Fr Peters, Fr Chris, and Br Vincent.

I met Paula and his wife Monica fairly late in their life, in 1999, but a friendship soon developed. After I subscribed by airmail to the Catholic News in 2006, I would often pass my hardcopies on to him. I did so for the last time this August 11, three days before he passed away. He loved to read the Catholic News and was especially happy whenever he discovered in its pages the name of some person whom he had known in ‘the good old days’ at the Mount. In 2009, Paula published an article about the use of Latin in the liturgy, for which he used several items that had appeared on this matter in the Catholic News in 2007.

As for his career, Paula obtained a PhD in Philosophy (cum laude) from the University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy (1966). He was the Director of the National Archives of the Netherlands Antilles (1969–1988). Starting in 1989, he taught at the University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA). He was promoted to a Professorship in Sociology at the UNA in 1990. In 1992, Paula obtained his second PhD, this time in the Social Sciences from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands (1992). Paula was Rector Magnificus of the UNA between 1997 and 2000. He retired in 2000.

It should be mentioned that Paula also briefly served his country as Prime Minister, heading a transitional government from late 1993 to early 1994. He was knighted in the Royal Order of the Netherlands Lion in 1995, while in 2004 he was knighted in the Pontifical Order of Saint Sylvester for his “valuable and consistent contribution” to the Roman Catholic Church. In 2011, one of Curaçao’s foremost secondary schools was renamed in his honour as ‘Kolegio Alejandro Paula’ (KAP).

Paula authored eight books, edited three, published some 25 articles of a scholarly or official nature, gave numerous public lectures and speeches, and wrote a similar amount of less official essays and letters to the editor. His work covered a wide range of topics, such as self-perception among Afro-Curaçaoans; slavery, slave revolts and emancipation; labour migration to Cuba; and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in Curaçaoan society. Several of his publications were pioneering for the Curaçaoan and wider Dutch Caribbean context, have become classics, and could be considered canonical for the social sciences and humanities of the Dutch Caribbean.

Paula came from a very poor Curaçaoan family. However, several key decisions taken by his wise mother proved to be opportune and enabled him to eventually become one of Curaçao’s most illustrious and remarkable sons. Paula was and is widely respected in the Curaçaoan society and will be fondly remembered for his profound wisdom in combination with his humility, compassion, Christian faith, and integrity. Trinidad and Tobago can be proud that they too, through Monica and through the Mount, helped to shape this outstanding Catholic, Caribbean servant of God and people.

Alejandro and Monica Paula are survived by their two children and five grandchildren. May the Lord embrace them with His ever-lasting peace–Peter B Jordens, Curaçao