Pope elevates Father Martin Sirju to Monsignor

Ro­man Catholic Vic­ar Gen­er­al, Fa­ther Mar­tin Sir­ju of the Arch­dio­cese of Port of Spain has been ap­point­ed Chap­lain of His Ho­li­ness by Pope Leo XIV and has been con­ferred the ti­tle of Mon­sign­or.

The an­nounce­ment was made by the Arch­dio­cese of Port of Spain in a so­cial me­dia re­lease, which said the ap­point­ment recog­nis­es Fa­ther Sir­ju’s faith­ful priest­ly ser­vice and ded­i­ca­tion to the mis­sion of the Catholic Church.

Ac­cord­ing to the Arch­dio­cese, the ap­point­ment was con­veyed through the Apos­tolic Nun­cia­ture by way of a Nom­i­na­tion De­cree from the Sec­re­tari­at of State of the Holy See. The de­cree ac­knowl­edges Fa­ther Sir­ju’s pas­toral ser­vice and long-stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the life of the Arch­dio­cese.

The ti­tle of Chap­lain of His Ho­li­ness is an ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal ho­n­our grant­ed by the Pope to dioce­san priests in recog­ni­tion of ser­vice to the Church. Priests who re­ceive the ap­point­ment are cus­tom­ar­i­ly ad­dressed by the ti­tle Mon­sign­or.

In a state­ment, the Arch­dio­cese ex­pressed grat­i­tude to God for the ap­point­ment and joy with­in the lo­cal Church, not­ing that the ho­n­our re­flects years of com­mit­ment to priest­ly min­istry and pas­toral care.

His Grace, Arch­bish­op Charles Ja­son Gor­don, to­geth­er with the cler­gy and faith­ful of the Arch­dio­cese of Port of Spain, ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions to Mon­sign­or Sir­ju. The Arch­bish­op as­sured him of con­tin­ued prayers as he car­ries out his min­istry in ser­vice to the Church.

The Arch­dio­cese al­so in­vit­ed the faith­ful to join in prayer for Mon­sign­or Sir­ju, ask­ing God to con­tin­ue to bless his work and vo­ca­tion. The state­ment con­clud­ed with the phrase “Ad mul­tos an­nos,” a tra­di­tion­al ex­pres­sion wish­ing many more years of ser­vice.