Bishop Clyde Harvey has announced the “immediate and indefinite” suspension of a Roman Catholic priest after he failed to stop making contentious remarks regarding the ongoing war in the Gaza between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group as well as criticism of the church.
Bishop Harvey said that the suspension of Father Gerard Paul took effect on April 4, 2024, following the very public showdown between himself and the priest.
“The Church has rules, clear expectations, and protections for the People of God, enshrined in the Code of Canon Law and the ordinary teaching of Popes and bishops,” said the Bishop of the Diocese of St George’s, in a statement, adding “when Fr. Paul said, ‘I have no regrets and I will do it again’, he put himself beyond review and fraternal correction.”
The controversy began on March 27, 2024, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and subsequent statements made by Father Paul on various media platforms in which he accused the church in Grenada for not condemning the situation in Gaza.
Father Paul said at a recent clergy retreat, the situation was not even mentioned or addressed.
“I call upon the Church today to get its freedom and to get its voice and speak up for justice,” the priest said, while calling the Gaza War a ‘wholesale slaughter’ of Palestinians and Muslims.
“We cannot rightly ever preach the Gospel if we do not stand for justice. It’s time the Catholic Church stands for justice. It’s time we hear the voices of the pastors of the church, we hear the voices of the priests of the church, we hear the voices of the bishops, we hear the voices of the archbishops, we hear the voice of the pope standing for justice. When you stand in silence, when you sit in silence, you are part of these injustice in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ the Grenadian born Father Paul said.
But the Trinidadian-born Bishop Harvey later told a church service that he was inclined to say nothing because the “Eucharist is not a place to divide us.
“We all stand up for justice. How we stand up for justice depends on our insights, how we see things. It is not true to say that the clergy of this diocese went on a retreat and did not think about Gaza. That is just not true and I want that to be made clear. I don’t hold Father Gerry accountable for what he does not know. He was not there every day, every hour, every Mass at the retreat as far as I remember.”
In a statement prior to announcement the suspension of the priest, Bishop Harvey said many people were offended, even scared by Father Paul’s actions and words.
“What was done, deliberately choreographed, seems to be an act of self promotion more than a cry for justice. The former is unworthy of Father Paul as a priest of Jesus Christ.”
The statement from the Diocese of George’s on Sunday acknowledged that many shared Father Paul’s view on the situation in Gaza, but the diocese condemned his persistent attack of the Catholic Church and its leadership as “erroneous and divisive.”
It said his suspension was not based solely on his remarks on March 27 but from a “persistent pattern of behavior” characterised by attacks on the Church and misleading claims.
It noted that Father Paul was called upon to stop such behaviour but that he showed no intention in doing so with Bishop Harvey saying that such attitudes undermine the authority of the Church and is misleading to all.
The statement from Bishop Harvey said the decision was necessary to address the harm caused to the faithful and the diocese in general.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas, which has vowed to totally destroy Israel, launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,200 people were killed, and more than 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages, according to the Israeli government.
In response, Israel has launched an all out war in Gaza and has vowed to destroy Hamas. Hamas said that since then more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed.
“Israel’s right of self-defense, which has been invoked to justify this operation, must be proportional, and with thirty thousand dead, it certainly isn’t,” the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said in February when he spoke to reporters.
Pope Francis speaking a day after the Hamas attack said “let the attacks and weapons cease, please, because it must be understood that terrorism and war do not lead to any resolutions, but only to the death and suffering of many innocent people”.
