The Antilles Episcopal Conference (AEC) is a Roman Catholic episcopal conference. Its members are bishops and archbishops from current and former British, Dutch, and French colonies and dependencies in the Caribbean (excluding Haiti), Central America, and northern South America. The conference's membership includes five archdioceses, fourteen dioceses, and two missions sui iuris. These particular Churches minister to Catholics in thirteen independent nations, six British Overseas Territories, three departments of France, three countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and 3 municipalities of the Netherlands proper.[1]

The bishop from an American insular area, the United States Virgin Islands, has been granted observer status. The episcopal conference is led by a president, who must be a diocesan ordinary and is elected by the membership of the conference for a three-year term. The conference also elects a vice president, who has the same qualifications as the president, and a treasurer, who can be a diocesan ordinary, a coadjutor bishop, or an auxiliary bishop. Additionally, a permanent board — consisting of the president, vice president, treasurer, the metropolitan archbishops and two other elected members — handles administrative issues between plenary meetings of the conference. The president of the conference is currently Gabriel Malzaire, Bishop of Roseau, while the vice president is Charles Jason Gordon, Archbishop of Port of Spain.[2]

The Holy See appoints an apostolic delegate to the Antilles Episcopal Conference, who also serves as the Apostolic nuncio (papal ambassador) to the independent nations of the conference. The nunciature is located in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The current apostolic delegate is Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu,[3] who replaced Archbishop Nicola Girasoli after he was appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to Peru.

Member jurisdictions

(Arch)Diocese (Arch)Bishop(s) Covered secular Territor(y/ies)
Province of Castries[4]
Archdiocese of Castries Robert Rivas, O.P. Saint Lucia
Diocese of Kingstown Gerard County Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Diocese of Roseau Gabriel Malzaire Dominica
Diocese of Saint George's in Grenada Clyde Martin Harvey;[5] Sydney Charles (emeritus) Grenada
Diocese of Saint John's–Basseterre sede vacante - Robert Llanos (Apostolic Administrator); Kenneth Richards (emeritus); Donald Reece (emeritus) Joseph Bowers, S.V.D (emeritus) Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, and the British Virgin Islands
Province of Kingston
Archdiocese of Kingston in Jamaica Kenneth Richards, Charles Dufour (emeritus); Donald Reece (emeritus); Lawrence Burke (emeritus); Edgerton Clarke (emeritus) Jamaica
Diocese of Belize City and Belmopan Dorick McGowan Wright; Osmond Martin (emeritus) Belize
Diocese of Mandeville sede vacante; Neil Tiedemann, C.P.; Gordon Bennett (emeritus); Paul Boyle (emeritus) Jamaica
Diocese of Montego Bay Burchell McPherson Jamaica
Mission Sui Iuris of Cayman Islands Allen Vigneron Cayman Islands
Province of Nassau
Archdiocese of Nassau Patrick Pinder Bahamas
Diocese of Hamilton in Bermuda Wiesław Śpiewak C.R.; Robert Kurtz, C.R. (emeritus) Bermuda
Mission Sui Iuris of Turks and Caicos Joseph W. Tobin Turks and Caicos
Province of Port of Spain
Archdiocese of Port of Spain Charles Jason Gordon; Joseph Harris C.S.Sp. (emeritus); Edward Joseph Gilbert, C.Ss.R. (emeritus) Trinidad and Tobago
Diocese of Bridgetown Charles Jason Gordon (Apostolic Administrator); Anthony Dickson (emeritus); Malcolm Galt (emeritus) Barbados
Diocese of Georgetown Francis Alleyne, O.S.B.; Benedict Singh (emeritus) Guyana
Diocese of Paramaribo Wilhelmus de Bekker; Aloysius Zichem, C.Ss.R (emeritus) Suriname
Diocese of Willemstad Luigi Secco Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba)
Province of Fort-de-France
Archdiocese of Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-France David Macaire; Gilbert Méranville (emeritus); Maurice Marie-Sainte (emeritus) Martinique
Diocese of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre Jean-Yves Riocreux Guadeloupe, along with Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin
Diocese of Cayenne Emmanuel Lafont French Guiana
Observer
Diocese of St. Thomas Herbert A. Bevard; Elliot Griffin Thomas (emeritus) United States Virgin Islands

See also

References

  1. ↑ "About Us — Who We Are". Antilles Episcopal Conference. Archived from the original on 2007-08-02. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  2. ↑ "Bishop Malzaire is new President of the Antilles Episcopal Conference". Dominica Vibes News. 2017-05-09. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  3. ↑ "New Apostolic Nuncio of the Antilles Episcopal Conference | NOW Grenada". November 9, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Territories – Antilles Episcopal Conference".
  5. ↑ Straker, Linda (June 23, 2017). "New Bishop for Grenada Announced by the Vatican | NOW Grenada".
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