The Antilles Episcopal Conference (AEC) is a Catholic episcopal conference. Its members are bishops and archbishops from current and former British, Dutch, and French colonies and dependencies in the Caribbean (excluding Haiti), Central America, and northern South America. The conference's membership includes five archdioceses, fourteen dioceses, and two missions sui iuris. These particular Churches minister to Catholics in thirteen independent nations, six British Overseas Territories, three departments of France, three countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and three municipalities of the Netherlands proper.
The bishop from an American insular area, the United States Virgin Islands, has been granted observer status. The episcopal conference is led by a president, who must be a diocesan ordinary and is elected by the membership of the conference for a three-year term. The conference also elects a vice president, who has the same qualifications as the president, and a treasurer, who can be a diocesan ordinary, a coadjutor bishop, or an auxiliary bishop. Additionally, a permanent board —consisting of the president, vice president, treasurer, the metropolitan archbishops and two other elected members—handles administrative issues between plenary meetings of the conference. As of 2024, the president of the conference is Charles Jason Gordon, Archbishop of Port of Spain, while the vice president is John Derek Persaud, Bishop of Mandeville.
The Holy See appoints an apostolic delegate to the Antilles Episcopal Conference, who also serves as the apostolic nuncio (papal ambassador) to the independent nations of the conference. The nunciature is located in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The current apostolic delegate is Archbishop Santiago De Wit Guzmán, who replaced Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu after he was appointed as secretary of the Section of First Evangelization of the Dicastery for Evangelization.
Member jurisdictions (Arch)Diocese (Arch)Bishop(s) Covered secular Territor(y/ies)Province of CastriesArchdiocese of CastriesGabriel Malzaire Saint LuciaDiocese of KingstownGerard CountySaint Vincent and the GrenadinesDiocese of RoseauKendrick ForbesDominicaDiocese of Saint George's in GrenadaClyde Martin Harvey GrenadaDiocese of Saint John's–BasseterreRobert Llanos; Kenneth Richards (emeritus); Donald Reece (emeritus)Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, and the British Virgin IslandsProvince of KingstonArchdiocese of Kingston in JamaicaKenneth Richards, Charles Dufour (emeritus); Donald Reece (emeritus)JamaicaDiocese of Belize City and Belmopan Sede VacanteBelizeDiocese of MandevilleJohn Derek Persaud; Neil Edward Tiedemann, C.P.(emeritus); Gordon Bennett (emeritus)JamaicaDiocese of Montego BaySede VacanteJamaicaMission sui iuris of the Cayman IslandsEdward WeisenburgerCayman Islands Province of NassauArchdiocese of NassauPatrick PinderBahamasDiocese of Hamilton in BermudaWiesław Śpiewak C.R.; Robert Kurtz, C.R. (emeritus)BermudaMission Sui Iuris of Turks and CaicosJoseph W. TobinTurks and Caicos Province of Port of SpainArchdiocese of Port of SpainCharles Jason Gordon; Joseph Harris C.S.Sp. (emeritus)Trinidad and TobagoDiocese of BridgetownNeil Sebastian ScantleburyBarbadosDiocese of GeorgetownFrancis Alleyne, O.S.B.GuyanaDiocese of ParamariboKarel Choennie; Wilhelmus de Bekker (emeritus)SurinameDiocese of WillemstadSede Vacante; Luigi Secco (emeritus)Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba) Province of Fort-de-FranceArchdiocese of Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-FranceDavid Macaire; Gilbert Méranville (emeritus)MartiniqueDiocese of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-PitreJean-Yves RiocreuxGuadeloupe, along with Saint Barthélemy and Saint MartinDiocese of CayenneAlain Ransay;Emmanuel Lafont (emeritus)French Guiana ObserverDiocese of St. ThomasJerome FeudjioUnited States Virgin Islands
See also List of Catholic dioceses (structured view) List of Catholic dioceses in the Caribbean Caribbean Conference of Churches
References
Sources and external links Antilles Episcopal Conference GCatholic