Dufour

It has been 12 years since the Most Rev Charles Dufour has been the Roman Catholic Bishop of Montego Bay. While he is enjoying ministry in western Jamaica, he acknowledged that it is more difficult than when he served in Kingston.

"In Kingston, I knew the law of the land. When I came here, I was a 'deportee'. I knew nobody. It took me time to know the people. I went back to Kingston for friends. I am not a parish priest now - that is a disadvantage. I ended up not knowing anybody," he said.

Dufour explained that in Kingston, he could go out every night visiting, but being in the Diocese of Montego Bay, he spends more time doing administrative work. Furthermore, his responsibilities take him all over western Jamaica, hence his inability to attend the many invitations he receives to be on Montego Bay's cocktail circuit - especially so on a weekend.

People person

"I would be invited to things but sometimes, I am way out in Westmoreland and I can't attend the cocktail (in Montego Bay). I am more interested in dealing with people. On a weekend, it means quality time with people. I want to spend time with people dealing with their issues on weekends," the bishop explained.

The Catholic Church in the diocese, he said, has suffered greatly from the effects of migration. He said there have been at least 40 families that have left the diocese within his time there as bishop. The migration pattern has been one of the factors that motivated him to devote great attention to the evangelisation of persons, including lapsed Catholics.

One of the major challenges affecting the ministry of the Roman Catholic Church in Jamaica and elsewhere, Dufour said, is to contend with persistent negative perceptions on that denomination. To illustrate, he said, "In the United States, there are 47,000 priests and only 500-600 of them are in the paedophilia thing. The press portrays the issue in such a way that it makes every priest a paedophile. My thing is that if a bishop, or a priest or a pope does this (paedophilia), he should wear short pants."

Comfort zone

In Montego Bay, Dufour served as chairman of the Montego Bay Peace Management Initiative (PMI) until this month when he stepped down. He wants to see more persons who are among the 'well off' getting involved in the work of the PMI and getting out of their comfort zones and going to volatile areas to talk to people.

He pointed out that there are at least 20 inner-city communities in the Montego Bay area, of which Norwood is largest with about 30,000 residents. He warned that if the private sector does not invest heavily in the inner-city communities in Montego Bay, crime will continue to haunt the Second City.

"I am not a sociologist, but I think the greatest problem facing us now is a lack of family life. There are basically no fathers around. A lot of mothers don't know who is the father of their child. When young men come here to talk to me, oftentimes I put them on to a Father to free myself to do other things," he said.

From as early as seven years old, Dufour, now 67, knew he wanted to be a priest. He tells the story how, at a tender age while living in Rollington Town, he was taken to the Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church in east Kingston where he saw the then priest ministering with flowing robes and fell in love with idea of this sacred ministry.

Obsession

In his teen years, he was so active at Holy Rosary that his father, seemingly fed up with his obsession with church activities, jokingly told him to take his bed and go live at the church.

As a teen, he trained his peers in the basics of being an altar server. He also knew the whole Mass in Latin. Then, he became a catechist and was given responsibility to conduct Mass in a church in Port Royal, Kingston.

He joined the St Vincent de Paul Society for eastern Kingston and was the youngest person at the time. The teen was often the youngest person on many committees in which he found himself involved. The St Vincent de Paul Society is an international organisation of Roman Catholic laymen and women of all ages, whose primary mission is to help the poor and less fortunate.

At 19, Dufour enrolled at St Michael's Seminary to pursue studies towards becoming a priest. Nobody asked him to be a priest, but he sensed God tugging at his heart for such a vocation. He spoke to Monsignor Charles Watson of Holy Trinity Cathedral and Fr Alwyn Harry, who was the priest at Holy Rosary, about his sense of call. Both encouraged him on his journey of faith towards the priesthood.

After decades of service, Dufour concludes, "Ministry is a wonderful thing if you know what you are doing. Don't play games with it."