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Leadership important during pandemic

GRENADA

Should Grenada’s government lockdown the island to stop the spread of COVID-19? Bishop Harvey offered his opinion August 13 during a live weekly session of Good News Catholic Communications’ ‘Conversation with Bishop Harvey’.

Responding to one caller’s suggestion of a total lockdown, Bishop Harvey replied that that’s not something any responsible leader can say.

“Because that would mean you destroy the economy and I don’t know if many people understand that there are a lot of people in Grenada who are suffering terribly because of COVID-19…. and that is not something that any government or Church can want to see for any extended period of time,” Bishop Harvey said.

“But this is where real leadership comes in here,” the bishop mentioned, as he addressed the issue of a lack of trust—one of the problems, he said, Grenada faces.

“And I see it. I see it all the time. That a lot of people are so untrusting of their leaders that no matter what you say people don’t believe you.”

To this end Bishop Harvey asserted that he holds a “serious responsibility” to be trustworthy as a bishop.

“I can never, never let that drop. But this is not only for bishops, it’s for everybody in a leadership position,” he said.

The bishop observed that in March and April—the onset of COVID-19—citizens trusted those in authority until some “poison” got into the system which created mistrust.

The almost one-and-a-half-hour-long conversation saw Bishop Harvey discussing a wide range of topics with host Ruthina Victor.

One caller raised the issue of abortion and that one political party in the US supports abortion. Commenting on this, Bishop Harvey clarified that the Church in the US does not support a particular political party. Those who support that particular party, he said, have more money to be able to “dominate” the airwaves in using their Catholic faith to run a particular message.

Bishop Harvey believed if Church and by extension society create “practical” structures to assist women in their distress, then fewer women would think to have abortions.

He referred to Archbishop Anthony Pantin, who during his tenure, set up a home for unwed mothers and their newborns called Mary Care Centre.

“And many children owe their lives today to that home,” he added.

Bishop Harvey revealed that over the years, he has met very few women who brazenly share that they had an abortion because they had a right to it.

While he asserted that the Church has an obligation to proclaim the truth—that abortion is wrong and the Church will never support the taking of a life—when the Church meets people who take lives, the first concern is not for the life that has been taken “but for the person before you who needs to make an evaluation of their guilt”.

“And here I want to say something which I think has relevance to Grenada: all of you women who remember having abortions as a child…those of you who were dragged to a nurse and made to have that child taken from you, you are not guilty even of sin. Let’s be absolutely clear about that…. that is the guilt of the person who facilitated it,” Bishop Harvey said.

He then prayed asking God to gently lay hands upon His daughters so that they may receive God’s forgiveness and healing.