Priests death underscores Jamaicas
runaway murder rate, violence
By TOM TRACY
Special to the National Catholic Reporter
The recent killing of a Catholic priest in Jamaica -- a priest who
cried out against the sort of violence that claimed his life -- has underscored
the islands runaway rate of crime and murder. The priest, Fr. Howard
Rochester, was found dead Oct. 26 on the main road in a farm community outside
Kingston, Jamaica. He had been shot in the head, the left side and hand.
News of Rochesters death had an effect not only across
Jamaica but in the United States, where Jamaican Catholics mourned a feisty
young priest noted for opposing random violence.
The shooting came at a time when the islands murder rate had
escalated. More than 700 have been killed so far this year, prompting many
Jamaicans to look elsewhere for a stable life. Some 300,000 Jamaicans, for
instance, live in South Florida according to the Jamaican Consulate in
Miami.
Jamaican law enforcement officials found no motive beyond robbery
for Fr. Rochesters murder, according to Jamaican newspapers. The
priests car and cell phone were missing.
The travel industry, a staple of the Jamaican economy, has
suffered as a result of the high crime rates. The Florida Caribbean Cruise
Association last month denied allegations that their officials are encouraging
passengers to stay on board cruise vessels when docked in Jamaica for fear of
crime.
Yvonne Coke, a Jamaican writer living in Atlanta, said she hoped
Rochesters death would do more to prompt changes in Jamaica than the
priest could have hoped for while he lived.
In 1994, Rochester had joined Coke in her ecumenical effort
Hands Across Jamaica for Righteousness, founded to challenge the
islands citizens to return to the God-fearing tenets called for in
the Jamaican national anthem.
Father was so pleased: He shared my heart on that, and he
asked me to come to his church and share it with his people, said Coke,
who is Protestant. Catholic Jamaicans living abroad should take an active role
in bringing change to the island beyond sending money back home to relatives,
she said.
I hope this becomes a flash point around which to
rally, she said.
Rochester, 40, who had served most recently as pastor of St.
Joseph Parish in Spanish Town near Kingston, was not afraid to speak out for
those who are voiceless, forgotten or lost.
There seemed to be a fire burning in [his] heart, imprisoned
in [his] bones, Fr. Gerard Reid, a close friend and Jamaican
priest of the Montego Bay diocese, said in his homily at Rochesters Nov.
8 funeral Mass at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston.
This fire of God rose from deep within the life Howard drew
from our Jamaican people, said Reid, who traveled to Jamaica from an
assignment in California after learning of Rochesters death.
Encounters with violent crime have become all too frequent for
Rochesters parishioners.
In 1997, Brian Dixon, the organist at St. Richard Parish in
Kingston, where Rochester was previously stationed, was shot and killed on the
steps of the church after choir practice. Dixon was active in local politics.
At the funeral service, Rochester issued a strong rebuke to local politicians
for putting politics above the well-being of their country.
It was widely believed that Dixons murder was politically
motivated and that Rochesters homily created unease in church and civic
circles at the time, according Fr. Michael Lewis, archdiocesan judicial vicar
and editor of The Catholic Opinion, the newspaper of the Kingston
archdiocese.
Last August another parishioner, Sylvia Edwards, a 48-year-old
businesswoman, was abducted by gunmen demanding a ransom. Edwards was later
murdered -- prompting Jamaican civic leaders to denounce the nations
alarming rise in violent crime against its own citizens.
The Edwards murder weighed heavily on Rochester, said those who
knew him.
Personally, it wounded him. He hurt deeply over that,
Lewis said, speaking by telephone hours after meeting with some of the
priests family. There were many people close to him who were
murdered, but he never gave in to the violence, to vengeance.
Rochester, ordained in 1987, was an outspoken critic of the
injustices of his homeland -- a conviction that prompted him to serve on the
boards of Jamaica AIDS Support, the St. Richards Primary School and the
Hope for Children Development Company, a Kingston-based organization assisting
inner-city children.
He will be remembered especially for his role in creating youth
groups to provide alternatives to the gang lifestyle, according to Lewis.
Angela Williams, a native of Jamaica and board member of the Palm
Beach, Fla., Diocesan Office of Black Catholic ministry, remembered
Rochesters last visit there in 1998. He had been invited to lead a local
day of reflection for the African-American and Caribbean Catholic community in
South Florida.
The youth were always attracted to him. He had altar
servers, a youth choir. He made sure they were off the streets, he taught them
whatever they knew, said Williams, whose mother worked in the rectory in
St. Richards Parish when Rochester was pastor there. His homilies
were powerful. He was fearless. He would challenge governments and
politicians.
Sheila Grant, an Anglican who took over for Rochester as board
chairperson at Kingstons Hope for Children Development Company, said the
priest understood the importance of self-esteem and how religion could be used
to build the self-esteem often missing in the poor.
He could use the pulpit in a very effective way to empower
people who need affirmation, she said. We have lost someone whose
heart was really there.
Tom Tracy is state bureau chief for The Florida
Catholic.
National Catholic Reporter, December 15,
2000
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