Tobago RCs get a Monsignor

Bestowed with the title of Monsignor, three years ago at the same time as Diocesan priests Christian Pereira, Esau Joseph, Mike de Verteuil and Cuthbert Alexander, Spence explained that “only Diocesan priests are given that honour.”

“We belong to the Diocese and not to any religious order, and it is the Archbishop’s recognition of the Diocesan’s priest work and commitment to serving God’s people in the Archdiocese. It shows that the Diocesan Priest has a certain maturity. It is a Bishop’s title by right and is given as a church honour to people like myself,” he said.

Born in Belmont 54 years ago, Kenneth Spence and his two older brothers were raised in the Methodist religion.

“I went to Moulton Hall Methodist School, then to Woodbrook Secondary. I did my A levels at the Polytechnic in St James, and attended Hanover and Belmont Methodist churches. I had no connection with the priesthood.”

While working at the National Insurance Service Centre in St James, young Spence would walk to St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church on the Main Road.

“The door was always open, it was literally an open door concept. I didn’t have any background like that but it was the presence of the Eucharist inviting me in.”

At the age of 23, Spence went to the parish priest Father Mc Carthy.

“He was very kind and very patient, although irascible to other people, and referred me to Father Reggie Hezekiah at Diego Martin. He passed me on to Deacon Bunty, who strangely enough was the same Deacon to receive me into the St John’s Church in Diego Martin after my ordination.”

Before anything could be finalised, Spence became seriously ill and spent four months in the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. He said during that period he experienced the reality of God’s presence.

“My mortality was evident and I also saw people wasting away and dying. I think one patient died before the priest came. There was suffering, illness, pain and really great need. Then I read in the Catholic News: ‘priests wanted, low pay, eternal benefits and that was the trigger’.” Archbishop Anthony Pantin sent him to Father Ross, rector at the seminary, who asked, “If I ask you to wait will you wait.”

Spence replied, “Sure.”

At the end of a five-year programme at the St John Vianney Seminary, Father Spence served for one year as a deacon at St Michael’s parish in Maracas/St Joseph, before he was ordained a Diocesan Priest in 1984 by Archbishop Pantin at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception: Spence remembers the “great joy and gratitude to God” he felt at “being committed to the Archdiocese of Port-of-Spain.”

“I was ordained with Diocesan priests Gerard Boodoo, Vincent Da Cruz, Roger Pascall, and Ron Mendes of the Holy Ghost fathers,” he recalled.

His first posting was to San Fernando where he was in residence at Our Lady of Perpetual Help while working at St Benedict’s in La Romaine for four years. Then he went to Rome for one year to study Canon Law, returned to Assumption parish at Toco for one year, served in Chaguanas for nearly eight years, then moved on to Pointe-a-Pierre and Couva.

A very practical and down-to-earth person with a great sense of humour, when asked whether he aspired to become Archbishop, Monsignor Spence’s immediate reply was an unequivocal “No” followed by a quizzical raise of his eyebrows and the question “Why?”

However, he acknowledged: “There is a reason and always something you have to learn or experience for your own spiritual development or whatever God has mapped out for you to do for him.”