Our connection to mission
November 7, 2018
New Marian grotto at Arima Boys’
November 7, 2018
By Kaelanne Jordan,
kjordan.camsel@rcpos.org
Archbishop Jason Gordon is reaffirming that the Catholic Church has always been at the “forefront” of helping people during difficult or challenging times. He used the impending Petrotrin closure and the October flooding disaster as examples of the Church’s mandate of being in solidarity with persons on the “fringes of society”.
“…The Church has been at the very heart of helping people through this very difficult time that we are facing…. And we would always assist if needed,” the Archbishop said during Catholic Media Services Limited’s (CAMSEL) Ask the Archbishop live chat on Facebook, last Wednesday.
In the segment, Archbishop Gordon said that some RC churches including one at Kelly Village, Caroni and Sangre Grande were used as shelters during the adverse floods.
He also acknowledged that churches and ecclesial communities such as the Companions of the Transfigured Christ (CTC) and Living Water Community (LWC) were also hands-on offering assistance.
“When I went to La Horquetta and to the centre, they were in dire need and at that time their stocks were running really low. So I made contact with Living Water [Community] and put them in touch with each other and they were in frequent contact on a daily basis and stuff was coming back and forth between La Horquetta and Living Water,” he said.
The Archbishop added that on Divali, last Tuesday, LWC visited a community of farmers from Oropune and Sangre Grande, whose homes were not necessarily affected, but crops destroyed during the floods. “…And that’s a tough one because this is the second crop for the year that they’ve lost. How do you replant again when you can’t pay the bills to live now?” he questioned.
The Archbishop commented on the October 27 Mass for Petrotrin workers, adding that it was a “Mass of solidarity and care” filled with all kinds of emotions.
He said it provided an opportunity for grieving and “to touch on that grief that people are feeling because their whole life has been disrupted”.
Archbishop Gordon said that after the Mass, many spoke to counsellors on site. “…And people were touched genuinely. One person came to me at the end of the Mass and said ‘I angry. I angry. I just angry’ and we spoke through the anger and then he went and spoke to a counsellor to work through the anger and to move from the anger to a place where he can be settled.” Click here to view the full Facebook live video
