Laventille statue removed for restoration

The damaged statue of Our Lady of Fatima at Our Lady of Fatima RC Church and Marian Shrine, Laventille, was taken down on Friday, July 19 for restoration. The project has a price tag of  $1.1 million, which includes repairs on the tower and other upgrades before Our Lady sits high overlooking the capital again.

Fr Clifford Mainooh CSSp

It took about two hours to remove the statue and pedestal of Our Lady of Fatima which was damaged September 9, 2020. The head of the statue was detached after being struck by lightning.

In an interview for The Catholic News’ Altos programme, Parish Priest for Morvant/Laventille Pastoral Area, Fr Clifford Mainooh CSSp said Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon spoke to him about the need to have the statue repaired. It will be taken to restoration artist Judith Sheppard however, Fr Mainooh explained other work which must be done.

He said: “When it is brought back, I have to indicate that it won’t be put on the tower. Because the tower needs to be repaired. There are a lot of leakages on it, also the lightning rods for the protection of the statue have to be fixed. Also, the lighting work has to be done up there and alongside some construction work, painting, and other things”.

After the statue is repaired it will be kept at the church. “When we have it restored, we will not be able to put it on the tower until all these other things are done,” Fr Mainooh added.

The parish has embarked on a fundraising drive to raise $1.1 million. There have been some generous donors, but the parish is still very far from their target.

Fr Mainooh said, “In total as I speak to you now, we have almost TT $50 something thousand, you know we are a long way from the TT $1.1 million so we still call on the persons of goodwill to support us.”—LPG

Donations can be:

• Put into an envelope and labelled ‘Restoration of Our Lady of Laventille’ and dropped into collections at Masses
• Delivered to the pastoral area office at Corpus Christi RC Church, Eastern Main Road, Success Laventille, Mondays to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Thursdays 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Persons donating by cheques are to make them payable to the RC Archbishop of Port of Spain/Laventille Morvant Pastoral Area.
• Deposited into the Pastoral Area’s chequing account at Republic Bank account #320 800 913 701

For further information call 763-1873 or 626-2056.