Archbishop Gordon: Better than that TT

One of the reasons murder is such a big problem in Trinidad and Tobago, is because criminals are not being caught and brought to justice by the police or the armed forces.

So said Archbishop Charles Jason Gordon as he spoke to members of the media after the Corpus Christi celebration and procession, which ended at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception yesterday.

“If a killer knew that if you did a crime you will be caught, you will be put in jail, you will be tried, and you will be convicted, then I think we would see the murder rate drop again.”

He said he was pained to see that, even in communities with unity among various races and religions, murder was still commonplace. “It’s painful because we are better than this... Yes I know it’s a handful of people doing the foolishness but we’re still better than this.”

Gordon said during the procession from the Queen’s Park Savannah to the Cathedral on Independence Square, he prayed for the city of Port of Spain and the people of the nation. He said it was sad that Trinidad and Tobagonians allowed crime to reach its current state, that people no longer respect each other and life has become cheap. “We don’t see the dignity in each human being and because of that we made human beings expendable.”

He said each person was filled with dignity given to them by God so all of TT must do better, and that should start by teaching children to respect others.

He said that when Christians celebrate Corpus Christi, they celebrate the body and blood of Christ which was physically manifested by his followers. “We are his body. So when crime happens it happens to the body of Christ. It happens to Christ himself. And for every one who is killed, every one who is wounded on our city, it is happening to Christ.”

When asked about the Muslim On The Job Training (OJT) teacher, who chose not to take a job at Lakshmi Girls Hindu College in St Augustine rather than remove her hijab to teach, Gordon said it was a question of diversity and unity.

He said while the individual should be respected, each group, as well as the whole should also be respected. “We have to start having a deep discourse in the whole society on how we are going to make this society a place where each person is respected but the whole society lives in unity.”

He said he was told the woman was asked if she wanted to teach at a Hindu school but the school was not asked if it was okay for her to wear a hijab. He said the situation was only being seen in one direction at the moment but all sides should be taken into consideration across all denominational schools. “If we’re going to be fair, let’s be fair to everybody please... These are the issues that creates the tension... That’s going to take us some time and some work but I think it’s possible because we are the kind of society that has done that kind of work before.”

He added that the problem was not in the concordat, which regulated the relationship between the State and the boards of the denominational schools, but with society so a review of the concordat was not necessary.

“When we know the kind of society we want to become and how we’re going to live together in these close circles, and how our religious symbols are going to be accepted by each other, in each other’s pace, then I think we have something to start working with.”