Catholics’ first native pastoral leader in nearly 400 years

Roman Catholicism got its first Barbadian bishop in its near 400-year history on Monday.

Pope Francis has appointed Father Neil Sebastian Scantlebury, 55, to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Bridgetown. He will also be the first Barbadian to be ordained a Catholic bishop, according to an announcement made at noon in Vatican City. The date set for the episcopal ordination is Wednesday, March 17, the feast day of St Patrick, at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in The City.

The Bishop-elect is to succeed Bishop Jason Gordon, who served as Bishop from September 2011 to October 2017, and who is now the Apostolic Administrator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgetown since his appointment as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain in 2017. Since then the Diocese of Bridgetown has been without a bishop.

Catholicism here dates back to the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1649 when Irish Catholics were deported here during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, and were forced to practice their faith in caves as Roman Catholicism was outlawed while the Church of England was the established church since European settlement in 1627. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgetown is a suffragan or subordinate of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain, and a member of the Antilles Episcopal Conference of bishops and archbishops.

Created in 1970 as the Diocese of Bridgetown-Kingstown, the diocese was split in1989 into the Diocese of Bridgetown and the Diocese of Kingstown. Bishop Gordon was appointed after the retirement of Bishop Malcolm Galt in May 2005. Both Bishops Galt and Gordon are Trinidadians.

Father Scantlebury has been serving in the Diocese of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands since his ordination to the priesthood on May 18, 1995. He was born on October 1, 1965, to Deacon Keith Scantlebury, and Myrna Scantlebury, both now deceased. After completing his primary and secondary education in Barbados, he entered the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

In the USVI, he taught religion at the Catholic School of St Peter and Paul Cathedral on St Thomas. He was accepted as a candidate for priesthood, holding the position until August 2003. In that same month, he became rector of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, St Thomas. In 2009, he returned to Holy Family Church becoming its parish priest. This year he became the parish priest of St Ann’s Parish, St Croix.

During his 25 years as a priest, Bishop-elect Scantlebury served the Diocese of St Thomas as a  Chancellor, Consultor, member of the Administrative Board of Catholic Charities, member of the Administrative Board for Child Protection, and member of the teaching faculty of Saints Peter and Paul High School, the Vatican said.

The statement added that the Catholics of the Diocese of Bridgetown will eagerly look forward to having a Bishop after waiting for three years.

(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)