Monsignor Wilson's contribution

By Michael Burke

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Today is the 105th anniversary of the birth of Monsignor Gladstone Orlando Stanislaus Wilson. He died on December 1, 1974, aged 68. This Roman Catholic priest who was born in Mavis Bank in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica was at one time regarded as the seventh most learned man in the world. He was a lecturer at the Urban College in Rome. Wilson knew at least 14 languages fluently and was awarded four doctorates, receiving the first at age 23.

Indeed, Monsignor Wilson as a Jamaican "put Jamaica on the map" decades before reggae music did. His parents who were both primary school teachers wanted him to go to Jamaica College. The fact that the black-skinned Rudolph Burke had gone to JC and was about to graduate was hope for the elder Wilsons that their son could go there.

But the then headmaster of JC, William Cowper, an Englishman, refused the young Wilson entry. Perhaps in Cowper's mind, one black student was enough, although at the time Rudolph Burke was admitted to JC, Archdeacon William Simms was the headmaster. But Cowper's views were certainly not those of his famous ancestor of the same name, William Cowper, who wrote the poem The slave's lament that was used in the anti-slavery campaign.

Gladstone Wilson had no alternative but to go elsewhere and he was sent to St George's College. It was there that Gladstone Wilson, who was developing an atheistic position, would debate with Sydney and Charles Judah about the existence of God. Out of those discussions Wilson converted to the Roman Catholic faith. Both Judah brothers as well as Gladstone Wilson went on to be priests. While the Judahs became Jesuits, Wilson was refused entry into that society.

St Josephine Bakhita of The Sudan in northeastern Africa was canonised in the year 2000 by Pope John Paul II. There are similarities in the struggle of this slave who became a nun with that of Monsignor Gladstone Wilson. Bakhita was freed from slavery by her last owner who took her to Italy and freed her there. Her former slave owners who were from The Sudan saw her in Italy and wanted to re-enslave her.

The Italian authorities ruled that there was no slavery in Italy and once Bakhita set foot in Italy she was free.

In the case of Wilson, when he was refused entry into the Jesuits, it was Pope Pius XI who, after an appeal was made to him, suggested that Wilson go to Rome to study philosophy and theology. Wilson was ordained in Rome on December 24, 1931. He returned to Jamaica in 1941, at a time when the political ferment in Jamaica was still raging. In 1937 Jamaica Welfare had been founded by Norman Manley. This entity, which would later be known as the Social Development Commission, would improve the rural communities with a view to stopping the rural to urban drift.

In 1938 the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union and the People's National Party would come into being. In 1941 the Young Men's Sodality of Holy Trinity Cathedral started the Credit Union Movement. In the following year, 1942, the Council for Voluntary Social Services would come into being. It was also in those years that the annual Jamaican Pantomime would come into being with a distinct Jamaican flavour. In the middle of all of this Wilson returned to Jamaica.

Wilson immediately got involved with the St Anne's Church Progressive Roman Catholic Club in Western Kingston which promoted the development of progressive thought in light of Catholic Social Teaching. Wilson also had sessions in the "Upper Room" at St George's College where he spoke against oppression in a scholarly way that corresponded with Catholic social teachings. But Bishop Thomas Emmett was intimidated by the land barons and merchants and ordered Wilson to stop the sessions.

Monsignor Wilson took part in discussion groups at Drumblair, Norman Manley's home. He was even asked by the elder Manley to represent him when his son Michael got in trouble at JC. Prodded by Father Charles and Father Sydney Judah, it is said, Monsignor Gladstone Wilson convinced Sir Alexander Bustamante to set an example by marrying Gladys Longbridge rather than live in concubinage. They married in September 1962.

It is indeed a pleasant surprise that among the new stained glass windows that have come with the restoration for the 100th anniversary of Holy Trinity Cathedral are depictions of Saint Josephine Backhita, the martyrs of Uganda and some of the modern saints .

The original stained glass windows were destroyed by Hurricane Charlie in August 1951. Glass louvres replaced the stained glass windows until recently. Since it took 60 years to find the money to replace them, I hope and pray that hurricane shutters are in place at the first threat of a hurricane so that the new stained glass windows are not destroyed - like the previous ones.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com

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Monsignor Wilson's contribution