Chester Sam­bra­no

Lead Ed­i­tor–News­gath­er­ing

chester.sam­bra­no@guardian.co.tt

Ro­man Catholic Arch­bish­op of Port-of-Spain Ja­son Gor­don has in­struct­ed priests to con­tin­ue of­fer­ing con­se­crat­ed wine to Catholics of all ages dur­ing Holy Com­mu­nion, say­ing the prac­tice is pro­tect­ed by the Con­sti­tu­tion.

Speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s Arch­bish­op’s Chapel Mass, Gor­don ad­dressed con­cerns about new al­co­hol leg­is­la­tion and its pos­si­ble ef­fect on the Church’s use of wine dur­ing the Eu­charist.

“You all must have been hear­ing a lot of noise about Com­mu­nion and laws and all kinds of things tak­ing place,” he told the con­gre­ga­tion, urg­ing Catholics to re­main calm.

Gor­don said the Church con­tin­ued to of­fer the Pre­cious Blood to chil­dren prepar­ing for First Com­mu­nion and Con­fir­ma­tion even when the le­gal drink­ing age was 18.

“Noth­ing has changed. Ab­solute­ly noth­ing has changed,” he said.

He said the prac­tice of re­li­gion was con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pro­tect­ed and that re­ceiv­ing the chal­ice was an im­por­tant part of Catholic wor­ship, as well as the tra­di­tions of the An­gli­can Church and oth­er Chris­t­ian de­nom­i­na­tions.

Gor­don cit­ed the writ­ings of St Cypri­an, dat­ing to AD 258, as ev­i­dence that of­fer­ing the chal­ice to chil­dren had been part of Chris­t­ian wor­ship for cen­turies.

He said the prac­tice pre­dat­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Con­sti­tu­tion and that a law passed by a sim­ple ma­jor­i­ty in Par­lia­ment could not change the Con­sti­tu­tion.

“There­fore, we can’t ask for an ex­cep­tion for some­thing that the Con­sti­tu­tion al­ready guar­an­tees,” he said.

Gor­don said he had in­struct­ed Catholic priests to con­tin­ue of­fer­ing con­se­crat­ed wine to every­one, re­gard­less of age.

“My in­struc­tion to the cler­gy is we of­fer the chal­ice to any­one of any age. Once the chal­ice is be­ing of­fered, it’s of­fered to every­one of every age,” he said.

The is­sue arose dur­ing last week’s par­lia­men­tary de­bate on the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Al­co­hol, Cannabis, Dan­ger­ous Drugs, Gam­bling and To­bac­co) Bill, 2026.

Dur­ing the de­bate, Op­po­si­tion MP Colm Im­bert raised con­cerns about the leg­is­la­tion’s pos­si­ble im­pact on the use of sacra­men­tal wine dur­ing Holy Com­mu­nion. He linked the pro­posed changes to cannabis and al­co­hol laws with re­stric­tions on re­li­gious prac­tices.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie re­ject­ed Im­bert’s in­ter­pre­ta­tion, de­scrib­ing his claims as “in­flam­ma­to­ry and de­void of mer­it”.

The leg­is­la­tion rais­es the le­gal drink­ing age from 18 to 21. It would make it an of­fence for peo­ple aged 18 to 20, as well as chil­dren over ten, to drink or pos­sess al­co­hol. It would al­so make it an of­fence to know­ing­ly sell al­co­hol to any­one un­der 21, with a fine of up to $50,000.

As in­tro­duced, the Bill does not in­clude a spe­cif­ic ex­emp­tion for sacra­men­tal wine.

An­gli­can Bish­op Claude Berkley pre­vi­ous­ly said Chris­t­ian church­es were study­ing the leg­is­la­tion and planned to make rep­re­sen­ta­tions be­fore Christ­mas about its pos­si­ble ef­fect on the use of wine dur­ing Holy Com­mu­nion.

Berkley said church­es were con­sid­er­ing whether an ex­press ex­emp­tion was need­ed but had not reached a fi­nal de­ci­sion.

Gor­don said the Catholic Church would con­tin­ue its long­stand­ing prac­tice with­out seek­ing an ex­emp­tion, as he be­lieves it is al­ready pro­tect­ed by the Con­sti­tu­tion.