Local News

Pope Leo XIV accepts Bishop Harvey’s resignation

09 June 2026
This content originally appeared on Trinidad Guardian.
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Pope Leo XIV has of­fi­cial­ly ac­cept­ed the res­ig­na­tion of Bish­op Clyde Har­vey as Bish­op of St. George’s in Grena­da, bring­ing an end to his tenure lead­ing the Catholic Dio­cese in Grena­da.

It is manda­to­ry for Bish­ops in the Catholic Church to of­fer their res­ig­na­tion to the Pope up­on turn­ing 75.

The an­nounce­ment was made on Tues­day by the Dio­cese of St. George’s, which con­firmed that Arch­bish­op Gabriel Malzaire of Cas­tries, St. Lu­cia, has been ap­point­ed Apos­tolic Ad­min­is­tra­tor un­til a new bish­op is named.

Ac­cord­ing to the dio­cese, Har­vey sub­mit­ted his res­ig­na­tion on No­vem­ber 9, 2023, in keep­ing with the re­quire­ments of canon law, which calls on bish­ops to of­fer their res­ig­na­tion up­on reach­ing the age of 75.

At the time, the late Pope Fran­cis did not ac­cept the res­ig­na­tion and in­stead re­quest­ed that Har­vey con­tin­ue serv­ing as bish­op un­til Jan­u­ary 31, 2026.

Fol­low­ing the death of Fran­cis and the elec­tion of Pope Leo XIV in May 2025, the mat­ter was re­vis­it­ed. On June 9, 2026, Pope Leo XIV for­mal­ly ac­cept­ed Har­vey’s res­ig­na­tion, of­fi­cial­ly end­ing his ser­vice as head of the dio­cese.

The dio­cese al­so an­nounced that Malzaire will over­see its af­fairs un­til a suc­ces­sor is ap­point­ed by the Vat­i­can. As Apos­tolic Ad­min­is­tra­tor, Malzaire will be re­spon­si­ble for en­sur­ing the con­tin­ued gov­er­nance and pas­toral care of the dio­cese dur­ing the tran­si­tion pe­ri­od.

Malzaire is ex­pect­ed to make an ear­ly vis­it to Grena­da and will pre­side at the month­ly de­vo­tion at the Mar­i­an Shrine in Bat­tle Hill on Sun­day, June 14, at 3 p.m.

Har­vey, who has served the Catholic Church in the Caribbean for sev­er­al decades, is ex­pect­ed to de­part the dio­cese next week.

His res­ig­na­tion marks the close of a sig­nif­i­cant chap­ter in the life of the lo­cal church. Dur­ing his years of min­istry, Har­vey be­came known for his out­spo­ken ad­vo­ca­cy on so­cial jus­tice is­sues and his com­mit­ment to serv­ing com­mu­ni­ties through­out the re­gion.

The process to ap­point a new bish­op for the Dio­cese of St. George’s will now be­gin un­der the di­rec­tion of the Vat­i­can. No in­di­ca­tion has been giv­en as to when a per­ma­nent suc­ces­sor is ex­pect­ed to be named.