ST GEORGE’S, Grenada – The Roman Catholic Church is asking the country to pray for Father Gerard Paul, the controversial priest who was involved in a serious vehicular accident over the weekend.
“We asked you to join us in prayer for Father Gerard Paul who was hospitalised on Saturday evening after a serious accident at Hope, St Andrews. He has rib damage and is in severe pain. He was anointed and communed,” the church said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
“Let us pray for him fervently for full and speedy recovery in days to come,” it said, hours the vehicular accident on the Eastern Main Road.
Police have not yet issued any statement regarding the accident, but photographs posted on social media platforms show a person lying down on a gurney.
Earlier in the year, Bishop of the Diocese of St George’s, Clyde Harvey suspended Father Paul from his duties as a priest because of his lack of respect for the church. The suspension became a bone of contention between Paul and Harvey but it was settled when the two met with Metropolitan Archbishop of Castries, Gabriel Malzaire.
Malzaire in a statement after the meeting said that after considering many things, and in the interest of maintaining “Right Order” in the Catholic Church, the suspension of Father Paul is upheld.
He also made it clear that the authority of the Catholic Church has spoken on the matter, and everyone must now work towards rebuilding the Catholic community.
Though months have passed on the suspension Paul has not been reinstated as priest because his suspension has not been lifted.
In April Bishop Clyde Harvey said Paul had “not been suspended because of what he had said about Gaza” but for his continued “lack of respect” for the church and his “pronouncements that often stray from the truth”.
Paul had called the war in Gaza a ‘wholesale slaughter’ of Palestinians and Muslims. (CMC)
