Roman Catholic bishops call for ‘Caribbean Day of Prayer’

The An­tilles Epis­co­pal Con­fer­ence (AEC) is call­ing on all Ro­man Catholics through­out the re­gion to ob­serve Thurs­day (Jan­u­ary 1, 2026) as a Caribbean Day of Prayer— “en­trust­ing our re­gion to the mer­cy, jus­tice and guid­ing light of Je­sus Christ”.

The AEC brings to­geth­er 19 Dio­ce­ses and two In­de­pen­dent Mis­sions com­pris­ing 13 in­de­pen­dent coun­tries, three Over­seas De­part­ments of France, six is­lands of the King­dom of The Nether­lands, and six British Over­seas Ter­ri­to­ries

In a mes­sage, AEC Pres­i­dent and the Arch­bish­op of Port of Spain, Ja­son Gor­don, said he is urg­ing all gov­ern­ments “with in­flu­ence in the Caribbean basin, in­clud­ing the Unit­ed States, Venezuela as well as the 15-mem­ber Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM), and our hemi­spher­ic part­ners to choose di­a­logue over force, diplo­ma­cy over in­tim­i­da­tion and co­op­er­a­tion over uni­lat­er­al ac­tion.”

The AEC Pres­i­dent said that he “strong­ly sup­ports” the call for CARI­COM to meet ur­gent­ly “to ad­dress the raft of di­vi­sive geopo­lit­i­cal dis­putes strain­ing re­gion uni­ty.”

“I im­plore Caribbean lead­ers to speak with one voice on be­half of our peo­ples and to de­sist from pub­licly crit­i­cis­ing one an­oth­er, as this deep­ens frag­men­ta­tion at a time when uni­ty is es­sen­tial,” he said in his two-page state­ment.

Arch­bish­op Gor­don said: “At a time when the faith­ful is cel­e­brat­ing the Ad­vent of Christ, the Prince of Peace, I ap­peal to the faith­ful to pray fer­vent­ly for peace in our wa­ters and for all af­fect­ed; fam­i­lies mourn­ing loved ones lost at sea; mi­grants flee­ing hard­ship; work­ers in avi­a­tion, ship­ping and tourism; and es­pe­cial­ly the poor, who will suf­fer most from in­sta­bil­i­ty and ris­ing costs.”

Arch­bish­op Gor­don not­ed that since the AEC is­sued a state­ment in Oc­to­ber last year on the grow­ing mil­i­tary pres­ence in the South­ern Caribbean, “the geopo­lit­i­cal land­scape of our re­gion has changed at an alarm­ing pace.”

He said what was then a trou­bling build-up, “has now in­ten­si­fied in­to ac­tive mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions, tanker seizures, the ex­pan­sion of naval as­sets and air­space re­stric­tions that af­fect the dai­ly lives of our peo­ple.”

“As bish­ops of the Caribbean flock, we can­not re­main silent when de­vel­op­ments threat­en hu­man dig­ni­ty, re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty and the long-held vi­sion of the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace,” he added.

The Unit­ed States has amassed a for­mi­da­ble ar­ma­da in the in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters near Venezuela, bomb­ing sev­er­al ves­sels Wash­ing­ton claims are en­gaged in the il­le­gal drugs trade and in the process killing al­most 100 peo­ple.

In Au­gust 2025, CARI­COM is­sued a state­ment re­gard­ing the in­creased se­cu­ri­ty build up in the Caribbean and the po­ten­tial im­pacts on Mem­ber States, reaf­firm­ing “the prin­ci­ple of main­tain­ing the Caribbean re­gion as a Zone of Peace and the im­por­tance of di­a­logue and en­gage­ment to­wards the peace­ful res­o­lu­tion of dis­putes and con­flict.”

But Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Prime Min­is­ter, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, has left no doubt where she stands on the is­sue. She has dis­agreed with the CARI­COM po­si­tion that the re­gion should re­main a zone of peace, sup­port­ing Wash­ing­ton’s so-called war on drugs in the re­gion, even as po­lit­i­cal ob­servers say Wash­ing­ton’s main aim is to in­sti­tute regime change in Cara­cas.

Arch­bish­op Gor­don said that the AEC has ex­pressed “deep con­cern” that the Caribbean Sea, “home to fish­er­folk, sea­far­ers, coastal fam­i­lies and mi­grants, has be­come a the­atre for con­fronta­tion not of our mak­ing.”

“Re­cent lethal mar­itime in­ci­dents, the block­ade of oil tankers, and in­creased sur­veil­lance ac­tiv­i­ty el­e­vate risks to in­no­cent lives and ag­gra­vate hu­man­i­tar­i­an suf­fer­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Venezuela,” he ob­served. “These ac­tions al­so strain mar­itime com­merce, tourism and the wel­fare of thou­sands whose liveli­hoods de­pend on safe and open seas.”

He said that while the AEC recog­nis­es the le­git­i­mate re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of states to ad­dress transna­tion­al crime and up­hold in­ter­na­tion­al law: “We af­firm more ur­gent­ly than be­fore that mil­i­tari­sa­tion is not the road to durable se­cu­ri­ty.”

“Height­ened op­er­a­tions in our re­gion, whether by glob­al pow­ers, or re­gion­al ac­tors, fur­ther en­trench mis­trust, dis­rupt economies, and en­dan­ger the most vul­ner­a­ble. War, or threat of war, is al­ways a de­feat for hu­man­i­ty,” he said.

The AEC pres­i­dent stat­ed: “We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Venezuela at this cru­cial mo­ment in their na­tion’s his­to­ry. Guid­ed by the tes­ti­monies of their own bish­ops and by con­ver­sa­tions with Re­gion­al Church lead­ers, we ac­knowl­edge the over­whelm­ing de­sire of the Venezue­lan peo­ple for de­mo­c­ra­t­ic re­new­al and for lead­er­ship that re­stores jus­tice, peace and in­tegri­ty of their in­sti­tu­tions.”

Arch­bish­op Gor­don added: “Their quest for a na­tion built on these foun­da­tions de­serves he at­ten­tion, re­spect and sol­i­dar­i­ty of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty.” —PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC)