June Gonsalves is the first woman in Trinidad and Tobago to have had the Dame of the Order of St Gregory The Great conferred on her by the Holy Father Pope John Paul 11. An honour bestowed on persons who have distinguished themselves for conspicuous virtue and notable accomplishments on behalf of the church and society.
Through this honour, says Father Christian Pereira, Administrator of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port of Spain "she is entitled to be called Dame June Gonsalves in church circles and also in her secular life. The title evolves out of the whole European system of dames and ladies, and the church is part of that whole European system."
The Award was founded by Gregory the 16th in 1831and placed under the patronage of Pope St Gregory The Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church, who was born in Rome about the year 540, son of Gordianus, a wealthy senator. A trained Roman lawyer appointed Chief Magistrate of Rome at age thirty-four, Gregory The Great later renounced the world and became one of the seven deacons of Rome.
After the death of his father, he built six monasteries in Sicily and founded a seventh in his own house in Rome, which became the Benedictine Monastery of St Andrew, and here, he himself assumed the monastic habit in 575 at the age of 35. Chosen Pope, Gregory now began the labours which merited for him the title of Great. His zeal extended over the entire known world, he was in contact with all the Churches of Christendom and, in spite of his bodily sufferings and innumerable labours, found time to compose a great number of works, such as the Gregorian Chants and Masses, and is known above all for his magnificent contributions to the Liturgy of the Mass and Office.
He died on March 12, 604, Married for 52 years in September 2001, and a mother of two children and four grandchildren, Gonsalves the eldest of nine siblings and has come from a particularly strict Catholic background, first attending St Rose's Girls School and then St Joseph's Convent in Port of Spain. On leaving school, she worked for a short time at Walter's Brewery, a subsidiary of Gordon Grant: "My father worked there, then I joined the Catholic Evidence Guild which used to produce a Sunday programme Catholic Forum of the Air on Radio Trinidad. Apparently the station heard my voice, invited me for an audition, next thing I was on the air. There I worked up to Programme Director and the station received a citation from the American Broadcasting Association for our participation in Catholic Programming."
Father Pereira believes that there are many people who have done a lot for the Roman Catholic Church "and I would like to be able to recommend a few other persons. But I had been around June for the twelve years that she worked as the late Archbishop Pantin's personal secretary. A highly confidential job and she effectively did it without any burden to the Archbishop which certainly made his work much more manageable, especially for the last ten years as he got older and needed somebody like June whom he could trust to handle correspondence and a lot of issues he had to deal with. She was very competent and did it all with much graciousness."
Additionally "many people outside of Trinidad have spoken about June. The Archbishop was proud of her, had trust in her and her respect to him and deep commitment to the well being of the church, which did not start twelve years ago, as she had been very, very involved in church life and was associated with my father, the late Albert Pereira of the Catholic Forum on the Air and Catholic Evidence Guild through which they went around explaining about the Catholic Church under the patronage of Archbishop Count Finbar Ryan."
"In no way do I mean to decry the fact or say that other people did not do as much, or to say no other person deserved that. I picked June because of her close association with her and it also is the end of an era in Archbishop's house. There are many men and women who have given selfless devotion to the church but it is not very well known because we do not publicise these awards so much. There actually is another person in the Bahamas who has also received this award, I don't know her name."
For June Gonsalves "apart from the fact that I was simply elated, being the first in the country to get this honour, you tend to feel to yourself in all humility, there are so many other people who do so much, perhaps even more than I have done, yet I have been given this beautiful privilege. But I have always been involved with the church in the Antilles region, don't forget His Grace was President of the Antilles Episcopal Conference."
Gonsalves recalls being asked by the late Archbishop two days after leaving Trinidad & Tobago Television around 1988 through "a phone call the day after New Year's from His Grace, who said by the way June, I understand you are coming to work for me." "As what" was her reply. "As a secretary" he said. She had never been a secretary but asked him to give her one month "and I will try to do what you want me to do."
After 12 years, she resigned at the end of November 2000. "I never got over His Grace's death. I told Father Christian I would stay on until the new Archbishop came, but really couldn't manage physically after all I had been working for more than fifty years."
The committed individual that she is, says Father Pereira, who had been helping her to consider her resignation "before the Archbishop died from as far back as November 1999, but the Archbishop didn't want to hear although he knew he would have to accept it eventually. Once he died which was very hard on June, she stayed with us to help the new secretary, Maria Ramirez-Affong, through the transition period."
Sunday Newsday and this columnist extend heartiest congratulations to Dame June Gonsalves.