Pope appoints first Grenadian bishop to head church on Caribbean island

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada - A Dominican friar is becoming the first Grenadian-born Roman Catholic bishop and the first native to head the church on the Caribbean island.

Pope John Paul II on Wednesday appointed the Rev. Vincent Darius the fourth resident bishop of St. George's, said a Vatican statement.

Darius, 46, succeeds Bishop Sydney Ancietus Charles, a Trinidadian who announced he would retire last year when he turned 75.

"I am particularly happy that it is a Grenadian that I am handing over the authority to — a Grenadian I know very well and of whom I have a very high opinion," Charles said Wednesday.

He planned to stay on the island: "After 27 years of service to the people in this diocese, I won't go back to my native land but will continue to work here to support the new bishop to continue to build up the Roman Catholic Church in Grenada."

Darius was born in the Grenadian hamlet of Crochu, in the parish of St. Andrew, and currently is spiritual director to his alma mater, the Caribbean's Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and Uganda Martyrs, in Trinidad.

Catholic officials said Darius is on vacation in New York City but is expected to return home soon so that a date can be set for his ordination as bishop.

Grenada's new Catholic leader holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Puerto Rico's Universidad Central de Bayamon, a bachelor's degree in theology from the University of the West Indies and a certificate in spiritual direction from the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri.

He has served as prior of Puerto Rico's Dominican House of Studies and Grenada's Rosary Priory as well as promoter of justice and peace in the Caribbean for the Order of Preachers.

He was ordained a priest in 1987 in Grenada, where more than half of the 90,000 residents are Roman Catholics.