Joshua Seemu­n­gal

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Jour­nal­ist

joshua.seemu­n­gal@guardian.co.tt

The Vic­ar Gen­er­al of the Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion in Port-of-Spain, Fa­ther Mar­tin Sir­ju, says ques­tions about the church’s role in the fight against crime are mis­placed, as the state, and not the church, is re­spon­si­ble for re­duc­ing crime.

Ac­cord­ing to Fr Sir­ju, he’s read, in the dai­ly news­pa­pers, that some peo­ple are com­plain­ing that the church needs to step up in the face of a crime cri­sis, but sug­gest­ed that the ques­tions should be di­rect­ed else­where.

“I want to say quite ex­plic­it­ly, my friends, that it is not the pri­ma­ry func­tion of the church to re­duce crime. It is not the pri­ma­ry func­tion of the church to make peo­ple feel safe in their homes. Whose re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is that? Whose? It be­longs to the state,” Fr Sir­ju said at the New Year’s Day mass at the Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion yes­ter­day morn­ing.

“The first thing we have to ask is, what is the State do­ing? Since things are as bad as they can get right now, at over 600 mur­ders for the year, all those in that de­part­ment have to ask them­selves - let us go through a new door for 2025 - what are some of the new things that we are go­ing to do? And to com­mit our­selves to do as we en­ter that new door? That Ju­bilee door. What are the new things we are go­ing to do that we have not done be­fore? What are some of the things we have to try? What can we do to col­lab­o­rate and do to­geth­er?”

The Catholic priest al­so called on com­mu­ni­ties to try dif­fer­ent things to bring peo­ple to­geth­er. He added that there is much room for im­prove­ment in the house­hold, ex­press­ing his be­lief that too many chil­dren are be­ing failed by their par­ents.

“The fam­i­ly re­sponse, my friends, is not as good as it should be. We need to put God back at the cen­tre of our lives and then we can see the won­der­ful things that can hap­pen,” he said.

Ac­cord­ing to Fr Sir­ju, the pri­ma­ry func­tion of the church is to pro­claim the Gospel of Je­sus Christ.

In do­ing so, he said, the church can help in the re­duc­tion of crime and help with any re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to make peo­ple feel safe.