Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Harris is appealing for citizens to be more “hospitable” towards each other to create a more caring environment, even in the face of spiralling crime and vicious attacks.
Harris made the appeal as he addressed hundreds of Roman Catholic worshippers at the annual Corpus Christi mass held at the Queen’s Park Savannah yesterday.
This year is the year of hospitality in the Roman Catholic calendar, a virtue which Harris said was sadly lacking in today’s society.
“Hospitality starts from very simple things. It means when somebody comes to your gate and they ask you for some food, you don’t run them.
“If you treat people with scant courtesy, they are going to treat you in the same way,” Harris said.
The Archbishop said he has been told that it was somewhat difficult for citizens to be hospitable to everyone given the high crime facing the country. He likened this to a “chicken and egg situation.”
“You stopped being hospitable and the crime increased. Most people that you help do not turn around and rob you. Don’t become paranoid because when you become paranoid you do silly things and don’t become more reclusive,” Harris said.
Devout Roman Catholics walked through Port-of-Spain in a solemn procession as part of the religious celebration.
Corpus Christi, Latin for Body of Christ, is a rite celebrating the tradition and belief in the body and blood of Jesus Christ and his real presence in the Eucharist.
Harris also urged people not only to fully appreciate the meaning of Corpus Christi, but to live in accordance with the teachings of the feast.
“We have to make a greater effort to get people to understand the significance of Corpus Christi. Hospitality means to be open to people and the Eucharist is one of the only places I know of where people of all ethnicities, every social class, every financial capability can eat together at the same table. But what we live in the Eucharist is only a symbol of what we should be doing every day of our lives.
“To celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi is to commit ourselves to being open to everyone...where there are no walls,” Harris said.
He said instead of shunning people, there must be structures like education to encourage hospitality.
“We have to see the good in others and to value the good that exists in others, but if we allow ourselves to be frightened and retreat behind walls, the situation is just going to get worse.
“The criminals have to be treated as people with the capability of changing. Everybody is given talents and everybody can be a gift to society.” Harris said.
He said the problem in T&T was that such “gifts” are not allowed to fully develop.
“The education system we have does not develop the gift of so many people and therefore they have nothing to offer. What do we want young people to do?
“We push them into a system of education which does not cater for their abilities or learning styles so they leave school with one or two O’Levels and there are no jobs for them. They lose hope...how are they gong to live?,” Harris asked.
He said the alternative was to transform the education system into one which catered to the learning capabilities of all including entrepreneurship and trade.
Asked whether there should be increased security for priests given the ordeal faced by RC Priest Clyde Harvey this week, Harris said there was only so much priests could do.
“We can do things like block people from meeting us like taking the normal means of safety such as installing cameras but don’t hide behind walls so that nobody can contact you,” Harris said.
After Mass there was a procession from the Savannah to the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception on Independence Square.
