Malcolm Rodrigues was the authentic Christian revolutionary

Dec 15, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The late Fr. Malcolm Rodrigues once told me that Marxism could not be disputed on any grounds. He also suggested that Marx’s characterization of religion as the opiate of society was not a denial of the existence of God but rather a commentary on the misuse of religion to oppress, its role in dulling people’s social consciousness and its penchant for demanding them to accept their earthly lot and await their rewards in the afterlife.

While Fr. Malcolm was sympathetic to liberation theology, he was no liberation theologian. Liberation theology involves a different way of doing theology from that employed by Malcolm. His radicalism and revolutionary instincts were derived not so much from his leftist leanings as they were from his Catholic creed and, in particular, from the “best kept secret” of the Church, its social teachings.

He saw no inconsistency between being a Christian and being a revolutionary. Indeed, for him all Christians are called to be revolutionaries – to dismantle unjust structures of oppression and to bring liberation to the poor – this is the gospel of Jesus and not of Marx.

By the time he was ordained a priest in 1973, the groundwork for his future social apostolate had been laid. The Second Vatican Council had opened the windows of the Church to the winds of modernization and had urged greater involvement of the Church in earthly affairs.  In Medellin in 1968, the Bishops of Latin America, reflecting on the reforms of the Council, adopted the “preferential option for the poor”. Three years later, the World Synod of Catholic Bishops declared that the Church’s vocation was to be present in the world by proclaiming “the Good News to the poor, freedom to the oppressed and joy to the afflicted.”

Locally, the anti-communist ferment of the 1950s and 1960s had given way, under the instrumentality of Fr. Michael Campbell Johnson, to a greater commitment to social justice and human development. By the time Johnson departed for Rome, Rodrigues was there to take his place.

He armed himself with an in-depth and extensive knowledge of the Church’s social teachings. The Joint Pastoral Letter entitled Justice and Peace in the New Caribbean, which was published by the Bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference in 1975, had a profound influence on him. It affirmed that faith and the pursuit of justice are inseparable; and that the Church must evince a practical concern for the needy, defend human dignity and human rights, identify with the poor and pursue social justice.

Joint Pastoral Letters were to become an instrument of the Church’s witness to social justice. Malcolm’s fingerprints were all over the Joint Pastoral Letters issued by Catholic Bishop Benedict Singh and Anglican Bishop Randolph George.

Catholic social teachings informed Malcolm’s working class praxis. In 1991, he asked the Faith, Justice and Social Action Group, with which I was associated, to organize a symposium to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the landmark Catholic social encyclical Rerum Novarum, and which as far back as 1891 had called for fair wages and respect for the right of workers to form associations.

The symposium was well received, and this germinated the idea of a wider national dialogue on social and political concerns. As a consequence, symposia were held to foster a robust exchange of ideas but also for the dissemination of the not widely known Catholic social teachings. Malcolm participated in many of these activities, explaining the Church’s teachings on the respective issues.

In 1989, a small group of us walked from Brickdam Cathedral to Parliament Building to offer prayers and hymns in solidarity with those protesting the hardships imposed by that year’s Budget. I was tasked, for a period, with holding a large wooden crucifix. The police tried to corral us into a corner but someone remarked that they should not let the shadow of the cross fall on them. This local superstition saved me from arrest that day.

Malcolm was not that fortunate. The following day he was arrested and held overnight at the Brickdam Police Station and hauled before the Court. I distinctly recall how at a meeting held at Brickdam Presbytery on the evening of his release he appeared abstracted and exhausted as if the toll of the years of struggle were weighing down on him.

At the time, Malcolm was part of the leadership of the University of Guyana Workers Union which had joined unions in the sugar and bauxite belts in calling a strike. I met Malcolm on the day that Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) broke ranks and decided to call on its members to return to work. He felt betrayed.

Malcolm was at the helm of the Elections Assistance Bureau (EAB) when it was established in 1991.The members of the Faith and Justice Group volunteered to support its work which involved verifying names on the Voters’ List, advising eligible voters of the polling stations to which they were assigned, and conducting field tests of the List. The group undertook field tests at Organgstein and St. Cuthbert’s Mission.

Two broader verification tests were also done. The first was a sample test known as the Curtis Test, undertaken by Fr. Tim Curtis; and the second was done by Selwyn Ryan and known as the Ryan Test. I am advised that the results of the surveys which our group undertook were dispatched to Dr. Ryan.

The EAB continued its election observation and education in subsequent elections. During one of the elections, I met Malcolm and he complained bitterly about a top official of GECOM frustrating the certification of his observers. I advised him to expose the gentleman publicly, but he did not favor that approach.

There is a mistaken perception that after 1992, Fr. Malcolm and the Church retreated from the struggle for social justice. This was far from true. In a letter published in the Stabroek News edition of 18^th October 2007, Malcolm lamented that “we are back to square one, and as such the struggle for our rights goes on.”

His struggle for justice extended to regional and international causes. He was part of the Jubilee 2000 Movement which was pressing for debt relief for poor countries. In support of its work, he dispatched me to Rome and Lewis Singh to Japan for major conferences. I also worked with him in a Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Haiti, following the coup which deposed Jean Bertrand Aristide.

In the Justice and Peace Commission, I worked with him to reestablish a small memorial to Fr. Bernard Darke who was martyred. The original boulder which constituted the memorial just outside of St. Stanislaus College had been removed soon after it was placed there in 1979. When Hamilton Green became Mayor, he consented to the placement of a new boulder.  Peter Cummings, the owner of Mazaruni Granite and whose mother worked with Bishop Singh, donated the boulder.

Fr. Malcolm had fine human qualities; he was considerate and caring. When my mother died in 2017, I had great difficulty in finding a priest to officiate at the funeral service. At the time Malcolm was stationed in the North West. During the funeral service, I was surprised to see him in the congregation. I was deeply touched that he came but even more so when he turned up at the cremation site knowing I had no priest to administer a final prayer.

It was there that I first saw the signs of his illness. He, a priest for more than forty years, struggled to find a suitable Bible reading. His brilliant mind which had inspired so many, had begun to decline.

Malcolm would surprise me in contrasting fashion on two occasions. When Fr. Morrison was about to retire from the Catholic Standard, he came to my home and asked me to consider succeeding him as Editor. I told him that Colin Smith was my close friend and deserved the position.

Somehow, the issue was discussed at a Presbyteral Council meeting and I was informed by an unimpeachable source that Malcolm spoke against me. But what shocked me the most were the reasons he gave. He was my Mentor and I respected his position.

The second incident was in 1990 following a Justice Mass held at the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church. Compton Young, a very popular Leader of the Catholic Charismatic Movement, was about to be elected as Mayor of Georgetown. After the Mass, Merle McCormack was asking persons to sign a petition and Compton made insulting remarks to her.

I confronted Compton and things escalated into an ugly row. He kept asking me, “Do you know who I am?” And I kept answering, “Yes, you are a Soup Drinker!” He did not seem to know what I meant and admitted, “Yes, I do drink soup. What is wrong with that?”

When he finally realized what I meant, he wrote a strongly worded letter to Bishop Singh demanding that action be taken against me. I faced the possibility of ostracism within the Church. One member of the Faith and Justice Group resigned immediately saying that I was impudent.

It was Malcolm who came to my rescue. He argued that since Compton and I had both received the Holy Eucharist at Mass we were equals in the eyes of God, and that I had every right to confront him on his unbecoming behavior. When it mattered, Fr. Malcolm batted for me… as he did for the poor throughout his priestly ministry.

Rest in Peace Malcolm… and thanks… for everything!

Yours sincerely,

 William Cox

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