• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Scattered debris and houses with missing roofs are seen in a drone photograph July 2, 2024, after Hurricane Beryl passed the island of Petite Martinique, Grenada. (OSV News photo/Arthur Daniel, Reuters)

Grenada bishop addresses flock following Hurricane Beryl’s wrath

July 5, 2024
By Tom Tracy
OSV News
Filed Under: Disaster Relief, News, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

MIAMI (OSV News) — In his first public address since Hurricane Beryl visited the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles region as the earliest formed Category 5 hurricane on record, the bishop of St. George’s in Grenada took to social media to offer a spiritual message of hope and resilience following the July 1 landfall there.

Beryl was the second named storm of the 2024 hurricane season and had major impacts on Jamaica and the Cayman Islands as it headed to Mexico before making an expected landfall somewhere in the United States in the coming days.

Early reports are that the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, which are part of Grenada, may have taken the brunt of the destruction in that diocese, along with parts of Grenada, which remained isolated due to poor communications as of July 4 according to Bishop Clyde Martin Harvey of St. George’s.

Scattered debris and houses with missing roofs are seen in a drone photograph July 2, 2024, after Hurricane Beryl passed the island of Petite Martinique, Grenada. (OSV News photo/Arthur Daniel, Reuters)

The Trinidad-born Bishop Harvey spoke July 4 about the spiritual and material impacts of the first major hurricane to so heavily impact this area since 2004’s Hurricane Ivan.

“After the storm, I would like to invite you to go through the whole series of feelings you had and acknowledge and claim them; part of you died in that storm, but thanks be to God few of us are able to say a relative died,” the bishop said, noting the spiritual implications of enduring Beryl.

He hosted a live call-in program broadcast July 4 through YouTube and Facebook during which his diocesan radio and TV ministry displayed early pictures showing sometimes severe damages to church and other properties from around the diocese, as well as taking phone calls from local clergy and parishioners reporting on their experience with Beryl.

The bishop addressed the fears that parishioners and clergy alike would have experienced during the hurricane landfall.

“Part of you felt the tension of hearing the tiles in church rattling, symbolizing the tensions in the foundations of the church. Think of your own tensions as you experienced the storm,” he said. “Beyond the tensions, moments of anxiety and hope together.
“My own experience of the storm was one in which I felt a bunch of hyenas circling the house, trying to get in. And when that stopped for a while I was afraid … to go out. I wasn’t sure what was outside that door, but in that stillness a glimmer of hope emerged that perhaps we were safe.”

Bishop Harvey noted that there was much to be grateful for due to the widespread preparations that were made to reduce the loss of life during Beryl, and he urged parishes and Caritas staff to work together in seeking out those who need immediate assistance and provisions.

Speaking through the diocese’s Good News Catholic Communications program, Bishop Harvey noted that a local Youth Emergency Action Committee had been setting up a presence in many parishes in order to help form a response effort.

Meanwhile, press reports indicated that government officials were working to set up a field hospital on the island of Carriacou, whose one permanent hospital lost most of its roof to the hurricane. Two deaths were confirmed there, and the island remained without power.
Moreover, the country’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell recently spoke of total devastation to Carriacou and some of the nearby settlements of the Grenadines.

Bishop Harvey noted that of the things that the government realized with the flattening of Caracou and Petite Martinique are the changes that will have to take place during rebuilding in those areas.

“There is an opportunity to decide who we will become, what kind of communities we will be and what kind of homes we will construct,” he said, adding that the region needs to take a “deliberate and considered” approach honoring the wishes of local residents.

“One person said to me two days ago the characteristic of Grenada homes was the wrap-around verandas where people sit and talk in the evenings, the hope that however people rebuilt they will not lose that Grenedan identity, which is threatened by some of the modern houses that have been built,” Bishop Harvey said.

“We have to think about that, and I want to suggest that we as Catholics have to pray about that because maybe this is an opportunity for the church to help to use some of what we have to improve the housing stock of Grenada,” he said.

The Diocese of St. George’s serves an estimated 46,485 Catholics in 20 parishes. It is a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Castries (Saint Lucia) and a member of the Antilles Episcopal Conference.

The bishop made a special appeal to Grenada family and friends living overseas: “Don’t rush to send this and that, find out what is needed; find out from your families what they want to do and give them the opportunity to make these decisions for themselves,” he said.

In Miami, the archdiocesan Catholic Charities agency had set up a portal for donations, while the Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services noted that it had a field person working in Grenada still assessing the scope of the damages there, according to Robyn Fieser, a regional marketing manager for CRS in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Communities across Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, Antilles, Jamaica, Haiti, Mexico and other countries in the storm’s path will need emergency relief, protection and recovery, according to a CRS statement, adding that in Grenada, a reported 98% of buildings — home to some 6,000 people — are damaged or destroyed. Most families there collect rain from rooftops, which is a low-cost way to store drinking water. With such extreme damage to homes, drinking water is now running out, according to CRS.

Assistance will prioritize shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, as well as access to food and essential supplies.

Bishop Harvey called for his flock to begin thinking of how God calls his people to begin anew as they make their way forward through recovery and response following Beryl.

“So we have a moment to start over again; there are people who need a lot of help, who need food and therefore they have to be attended to.

“But let us also begin to think about who you will become through all of this, who were you becoming in those hours on Monday when you were cowering in anguish or fear, anxiety. Out of the chaos of this disaster, come, and let us walk together to new places and dreams that never were,” he said.

Read More Disaster Relief

Pope sends ‘generous’ donation to aid Myanmar quake victims

Pope prays for victims of Dominican nightclub disaster

Archbishop encourages hope as death toll in Myanmar surpasses 3,000

Catholic aid organizations in a race against time to provide relief in Myanmar

Myanmar death toll surpasses 2,000; cardinal calls for immediate ceasefire amid tragedy

Tragic earthquake hits war-torn Myanmar, with massive death toll and little aid

Copyright © 2024 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Tom Tracy

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Religious sisters played role in pope’s formation in grade school, N.J. province discovers

  • Baltimore native stirs controversy in Charlotte Diocese over liturgical norms

  • With an Augustinian in chair of St. Peter, order sees growing interest in vocations

  • Babe Ruth’s legacy continues to grace Archdiocese of Baltimore

  • The Spirit leads – and Father Romano follows – to Mount St. Mary’s 

| Latest Local News |

Words spell success for archdiocesan students

Maryland bishops call for ‘prophetic voice’ in  pastoral letter on AI

Babe Ruth’s legacy continues to grace Archdiocese of Baltimore

St. Frances Academy plans to welcome middle schoolers

Baltimore Mass to celebrate local charities in time of perilous cuts

| Latest World News |

Guide to the ecumenical councils of the church

Indiana Catholic shares story of his life-changing bond with friend who is now Pope Leo

Fathers of the Church: The Latin (or Western) Fathers

St. Athanasius, staunch defender of truth at Nicaea and beyond

Many Catholics in autism community see RFK Jr. remarks ‘disrespectful,’ ignorant

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Guide to the ecumenical councils of the church
  • Fathers of the Church: The Latin (or Western) Fathers
  • Indiana Catholic shares story of his life-changing bond with friend who is now Pope Leo
  • The Acts of the Apostles and ‘The Amazing Race’
  • St. Athanasius, staunch defender of truth at Nicaea and beyond
  • Words spell success for archdiocesan students
  • Many Catholics in autism community see RFK Jr. remarks ‘disrespectful,’ ignorant
  • With an Augustinian in chair of St. Peter, order sees growing interest in vocations
  • As first U.S.-born pontiff, Pope Leo may be ‘more attuned’ to polarization issue, analysts say

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en