The story of the Catholic Church in the British Virgin Islands is still part of the living memory of our older Parishioners. They can retell the story of the Catholic Church in the British Virgin Islands. It was only in 1957 that the first Catholic Church, St. William’s, was built in Road Town. It was constructed with volunteer labour as a gathering place for the small number of Catholics on Tortola. Before its construction, Catholics would gather in the homes of parishioners, whenever a visiting Priest would come. In between the irregular visits of Clergy, Catholics would continue to meet for prayer services in homes as a practical way of sustaining their faith.

The construction of St. William’s did not necessarily mean that the frequency of the visiting Priests increased. Through out the 1960s, as the Catholic population slowly increased through migration from the other islands of the West Indies, requests were continually made to St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands) for regular visits by Priests to minister to the Catholics of the British Virgin Islands. Many older parishioners can vividly recall the sense of relief as slowly but surely a regular pattern of visitation and ministry evolved.

Several times a year, to coincide with the visits of the Clergy, Religious Sisters would also travel to the British Virgin Islands from St. Thomas to help organize the Religious Education of the younger members of our Community. In between these visits it was the responsibility of the Parishioners to educate their children and sustain their own faith.

With the close of the 1960's, St. William's was still not a Parish, and while the time of stay on Tortola by visiting Clergy had substantially increased, we did not have a permanent parish Priest. All that was to change in 1971 when the British Virgin Islands became the most northerly Parish of the newly created Diocese of St. John's-Basseterre. This new Diocese was carved out of the Windward Islands of Antigua, Montserrat, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis.

On the 16th of January, 1972, Fr. John Valentine arrived in Road Town to take up his duties as our first resident Priest. On his arrival he found a small Church building and an even smaller congregation. He also discovered that the small Church had no accommodation for a Priest, so for this first year he slept at the back of the Church, with a curtain separating his bed from the rest of the Church.

Fr. Valentine's experiences as a missionary in India and his amazing ability to live a very rustic life did not hide the fact from Parishioners that money needed to be raised to extend the Church and provide suitable accommodation for the Priest. In Fr. Valentine's 12 years as Parish Priest several additions were made to St. William's in an attempt to meet the needs of a growing Catholic population which had swelled through mitigation from the other islands of the Caribbean.

In 1984, Fr. Valentine was transferred to Anguilla and was succeeded by Fr. Jack Whyte as our second Parish Priest. The Irish born Jack White was a member of the famous Catholic order of Priests and Brothers, the Redemptorist, and had served as Provincial of their Irish Province and worked in India and the United States before volunteering to work in the West Indies.

This was a time of consolidation and building upon the foundations laid by Fr. Valentine and the first Parishioners. Money was raised to complete the residence and in response to the need, Mass was also celebrated in a rented storeroom at East End.

Under Fr. Whyte's leadership, a serious attempt was made to minister to the small Catholic population on Virgin Gorda. St. Mary's Anglican Church generously allowed Fr. Whyte to use their Church until enough funds could be raised to build a Catholic Church on Virgin Gorda. Eventually, the many years of hard work and sacrifices bore fruit when St. Ursula's, the second Catholic Church in the Territory, was dedicated in 1988. Fr. Whyte's legionary ability to raise money enabled the construction of the Catholic Community Centre in 1997. In 1999 Fr. Whyte retired to his native Ireland and died in 2003. We have now named The Fr. Jack Whyte Catholic Community Centre in his hounor.

As the Catholic Community continued to grow on Virgin Gorda, the decision was made to make it a separate Parish and appropriately, Fr. Whyte was appointed as its first resident Priest. Like his predecessors, our third Parish Priest, Fr. Joe Bates, bought to our Community a wealth of experience and a vision for this young Parish. Just after he was ordained for the Divine Word Missionary Order in 1944, he was sent to China and would be imprisoned by the Communists because of his Faith. After his release, Fr. Bates was sent to the Philippines where he worked for over twenty years before volunteering to work in the West Indies.

Fr. Bates accepted the challenge of finally building a permanent home for the East End congregation. After years of fund raising, planning and dreaming, the Mary Star of the Sea Church, built on land that had been donated, was blessed in 1993. Less than 18 months later Fr. Bates died suddenly and is buried at the East End Church which he built.

After Fr. Bates’ death, Fr. Peter Brannelly, a priest of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia, became our fourth Parish Priest in 1995. He came at a time when there was rapid development in the British Virgin Islands. He was a young man with great energy. He raised the funds required to rebuild the small and structurally unsound St. William’s Church. Work begun on the redevelopment of St. William’s early in 1999 and on November 15th, 1999 the new Church/Parish Office and Hall was blessed and opened. That the work was completed so rapidly amazed even the Chief Minister of the time. Fr. Peter was also active and very visible in the wider community – as a member of the Prison visiting Committee, the Family Support Network and the Crisis Intervention Team. With the retirement of Fr. Whyte, Fr. Peter was also responsible for the administration of the parish of St. Ursula’s, Virgin Gorda.

In appreciation of his services to the Diocese and to the Church, Bishop Donald Reece on behalf of Pope John Paul II, awarded him the award of the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in December 2004. At his farewell in July 2005, the Chief Minister awarded him Honorary Belonger Status in the BVI. He left the BVI on 31st July 2005 leading a group of 35 persons on a pilgrimage to Italy and then, to Cologne, Germany for World Youth Day.

In the 30 years since our first resident Parish Priest arrived on these islands the Catholic Parish has grown and evolved into a dynamic and responsive Faith Community. With the completion of the major building programmes, the attention of the Parish has focused upon building a fund for our future needs and supporting the many different groups and organisations that make up our Parish Family. At the same time, we recognize that we must be responsive to the needs of our Community. In 2001 we launched our Scholarship Trust Fund which has enabled us to provide educational opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable to our youth. We have tried to remember that the BVI is still growing. In 2004, we bought a plot of land in Jost van Dyke. It is still a very small community of catholics. But Mass is celebrated for them on the first Sunday of every month. Bishop Reece visited Jost Van Dyke in July 2005 and proposed the building of a modest place of worship on the island.

With the departure of Fr. Brannelly, Fr. Nihal Abeyasingha, a priest from Sri Lanka, has been appointed the fifth parish priest of Tortola. He comes with a wide range of experience in parish ministry, preaching of retreats and missions and teaching at universities and seminaries. With effect from September 2005, Fr. Larry Finnegan is the Parish Priest of St. Ursula’s Virgin Gorda. He has a wealth of experience having been Provincial of the Divine Word Missionaries in Ireland, as well as ministry in Kenya.

As we journey into the future, in a world that is becoming a global village, we recognize that these dreams for our Parish require sacrifices and trust from our entire community and support from our friends who visit us from beyond our shores.

And so, our journey continues...