The Catholic Church in Jamaica is the island’s oldest Christian church. It arrived with the Spanish in 1509, was organised as an abbacy in 1515 and was then driven underground for more than a century after the English conquest of 1655. Restored as an Apostolic Vicariate in 1837 and built up by Jesuits, Franciscan and Mercy sisters and other religious orders, it is today a small church by Jamaican standards, with 57,946 adherents (2.16% of the population) at the 2011 census, but one with an outsized place in national life through its schools, its cathedral in Kingston, its hospitals and homes, and orders such as the Missionaries of the Poor, which was founded in Kingston. It is organised as an archdiocese in Kingston and two dioceses, in Montego Bay and Mandeville.
Last updated: 12 October 2026. This is a living reference: Jamaica Homes updates it when events warrant and reviews it every October. Part of our guide to Christianity in Jamaica. Figures and statistics are on Jamaica Religion Stats.
| Catholic Church in Jamaica | |
|---|---|
| Arrived | 1509, with Spanish settlers at Sevilla la Nueva, St Ann (a priest with Columbus said Mass offshore in 1494) |
| Spanish-era jurisdiction | Abbacy of Jamaica, 1515–1655 |
| Restored | Priest sent 1791–92; Apostolic Vicariate created 10 January 1837 |
| Structure | Ecclesiastical province of Kingston: Archdiocese of Kingston in Jamaica (1956 diocese, archdiocese 1967), Diocese of Montego Bay (1967), Diocese of Mandeville (vicariate 1991, diocese 1997). Member of the Antilles Episcopal Conference |
| Archbishop of Kingston | Kenneth Richards, since 2016 (as of 2026) |
| Mandeville and Montego Bay | Bishop John Derek Persaud, Bishop of Mandeville since 2020 and Apostolic Administrator of Montego Bay since October 2023 (as of 2026; Montego Bay has no bishop of its own) |
| 2011 census | 57,946 people, 2.16% of the population (down 13.8% on 2001) |
| Church figures | About 71,000 Catholics in 64 parishes across the three dioceses (GCatholic, data to end of 2022) |
| Cathedrals | Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston; Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Montego Bay; St Paul of the Cross Cathedral, Mandeville |
| Patron of Jamaica | Our Lady of the Assumption |
| Schools | Nearly 100 Catholic educational institutions (2020), among them St George’s College (1850), Immaculate Conception High School and Campion College |
| Orders founded in Jamaica | Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (1929); Missionaries of the Poor (1981) |
| Ecumenical membership | Jamaica Council of Churches |
| Website | kingstonarchdioceseja.org |
The Spanish church, 1494–1655
Catholic Christianity reached Jamaica with Christopher Columbus, who arrived on 5 May 1494 during his second voyage; a priest aboard his ships celebrated Mass while they lay at anchor offshore. When the Spanish settled the island in 1509 they founded Sevilla la Nueva on the north coast near present-day St Ann’s Bay, now part of Seville Heritage Park. In 1512 King Ferdinand ordered Franciscan friars to the island; Pope John Paul II later recalled this “original band of ten Franciscan friars” when he spoke in Kingston in 1993. Dominicans also worked among the Taíno.
In 1515 Pope Leo X made Jamaica an abbacy, a church territory governed by an abbot rather than a bishop; 13 abbots served it during Spanish rule. For its first decades it was subordinate to the Archdiocese of Seville and was later attached to Santiago de Cuba, and rival claims between Santo Domingo and Santiago de Cuba left the island neglected. The best-known abbot, the Italian humanist and chronicler Peter Martyr of Anghiera, received the title from Pope Clement VII in the 1520s; he never visited Jamaica but is credited with building its first stone church. Its unfinished cut-stone ruins at Sevilla were later given to the Catholic Church, and stones from them were built into Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the church completed beside the site between 1939 and 1943.
The Spanish moved their capital in the 1530s to Villa de la Vega, now Spanish Town, where the Church of the Red Cross stood on the site now occupied by the Anglican St Jago de la Vega Cathedral. Franciscans and Dominicans kept small houses there, and between 1600 and 1625 a confraternity was formed at the Franciscan church; devotion to St James gave the colony its Spanish name, Santiago. The mission to the Taíno failed: by about 1570 their disappearance as a people was already evident. Catholicism was the only faith permitted in Spanish Jamaica until 1655.
Suppression, 1655–1791
In 1655 an English force sent by Oliver Cromwell captured the island. The Spanish were expelled, their churches burned and Catholic worship banned; Cromwell’s stated aim, the archdiocese’s own history records, was to “purge the New World of Papists”. The Church of England became the established church (see Anglicans). A priest was sent under the Catholic King James II in 1688, but James was deposed the following year and the ban returned. For more than a century Catholicism survived only privately.
Return and the vicariate, 1791–1900
British relief laws gradually lifted the penalties on Catholics, notably the Papists Act 1778 and the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791. An Irish Franciscan, Anthony Quigley, was sent to minister to the scattered faithful; the archdiocese dates this to 1791 and other accounts to 1792. In 1791 refugees from the revolution in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), priests among them, also landed in Kingston, adding French-speaking Catholics to the small community. Later in the 19th century Jesuits were sometimes borrowed from French and Spanish provinces because so many Catholics spoke those languages.
On 10 January 1837 Pope Gregory XVI made Jamaica an Apostolic Vicariate and placed it in the care of the English Jesuits. The first Vicar Apostolic was Benito Fernández (1837–1855), followed by the Jesuit James Eustace Dupeyron (1855–1872). The church remained small: until 1894 there were never more than ten priests on the island. Its members were mostly well-off Europeans and white or brown creoles in Kingston and Spanish Town, while the Black peasantry had largely joined the Baptists, Methodists and Moravians. In 1888 territory was detached to form a separate prefecture for British Honduras (Belize).
Education became the church’s main instrument. On 2 September 1850, 21 Spanish Jesuits exiled from New Granada (Colombia), led by Fr Emmanuel Gil, opened St George’s College in a rented house at 26 North Street, Kingston. The school was closed and reopened several times in its early decades; in 1905 the Jesuits bought Pawsey’s Pen, now Winchester Park, where it still stands.
The religious orders arrive
Much of the church’s Jamaican character comes from orders of sisters, brothers and priests who arrived from the 1850s onward:
- Franciscan Sisters (1857). Sisters arrived in November 1857 (the archdiocese says from Dublin; the school’s own history names the Franciscan Sisters of Glasgow, led by Mother Veronica Cordier) and opened the Immaculate Conception Academy for girls on East Queen Street, Kingston. Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, New York, arrived in 1878–79 and later took over the schools, which grew to include Mount Alvernia in Montego Bay and Marymount in Highgate.
- Sisters of Mercy (1890). In 1880 Jessie Ripoll opened a small orphanage in a Kingston cottage she named Alpha; with Margaret Mary Ximines and Louise Dugiol she became one of the first three Jamaicans to join the Sisters of Mercy, who came from Bermondsey, London, in 1890. The Alpha campus grew to include Alpha Boys’ School, Holy Family School on Laws Street (1891) and the Convent of Mercy Academy for girls (1894), now Alpha Academy.
- Dominican Sisters (1911). Sisters from New Jersey came to staff Catholic health care and on 8 December 1916 opened St Joseph’s Hospital at Deanery Road, Kingston.
- American Jesuits (1919). Responsibility for the mission passed to the New England Province of the Jesuits, which greatly increased the number of missionaries.
- Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (1929). Founded in Jamaica and known locally as the “Blue Sisters”, they run Holy Childhood High School at Half-Way-Tree and Stella Maris Preparatory School.
- Passionists (1955) began work in central Jamaica, and Franciscan friars (Order of Friars Minor) arrived in Kingston in 1958, taking charge of Our Lady of the Angels Church on Molynes Road. Friars of the Atonement served the Church of Reconciliation at Bridgeport, St Catherine, from its dedication in 1977 until 1992.
The twentieth century
The Kingston earthquake of 1907 destroyed the old Holy Trinity Church at Duke and Sutton streets in downtown Kingston, along with the Franciscan sisters’ buildings on Duke Street. Bishop John Joseph Collins commissioned the New York architect Raymond F. Almirall to design a replacement on the Colmar estate beside Winchester Park. Work began in 1908 and Holy Trinity Cathedral opened in February 1911, a Byzantine Revival church with an 85-foot copper-covered dome, frescoed walls, a Carrara marble high altar and one of the largest pipe organs in the Caribbean.
By 1921 the Catholic population was estimated at about 37,000, roughly 4% of Jamaicans. In 1925 William Hoskins, owner of the Seville estate, gave the Spanish church ruins and five acres to the church. Immaculate Conception moved in 1940–41 to the former Constant Spring Hotel after fire destroyed its Duke Street site. Gladstone Wilson of Mavis Bank, St Andrew, ordained in 1931 and made a monsignor in 1950, became one of the best-known Jamaican priests of his generation and preached at the reinterment of Marcus Garvey in 1964.
Jamaicans increasingly took charge of their own church. St Michael’s Seminary opened in Kingston in 1952 to train local priests, and in 1950 the American Jesuit John J. McEleney became Vicar Apostolic. On 5 January 1960 the Jesuits opened Campion College; its founder and first headmaster was Fr Samuel Carter, SJ, a Kingston-born Jesuit who also became the first Jamaican rector of St George’s College. Campion became a grant-aided, co-educational public school in 1976.
Archdiocese and dioceses, 1956 to today
On 29 February 1956 the vicariate became the Diocese of Kingston, covering the whole island, with McEleney as bishop. In 1966 Samuel Carter was made auxiliary bishop, the first Jamaican to become a Catholic bishop. On 14 September 1967, after the Second Vatican Council, Kingston was raised to a metropolitan archdiocese and the Diocese of Montego Bay was created for the west, with the Jamaican-born Edgerton Clarke as its first bishop. In 1970 Carter succeeded McEleney as the first Jamaican Archbishop of Kingston, serving until 1994; in 1973 he was elected chairman at the inaugural meeting of the Caribbean Conference of Churches.
On 15 April 1991 territory from Kingston and Montego Bay was formed into the Apostolic Vicariate of Mandeville, covering Clarendon, Manchester and St Elizabeth, under the Passionist Paul Michael Boyle; it became a full diocese on 21 November 1997. In 2000 the Cayman Islands, long served from Kingston, became a separate mission. The archbishops since Carter have been Edgerton Clarke (1994–2004), Lawrence Burke (2004–2008), Donald Reece (2008–2011), Charles Dufour (2011–2016) and Kenneth Richards, installed at Holy Trinity Cathedral on 7 July 2016 after four years as Bishop of St John’s–Basseterre in Antigua.
The cathedral itself fell into disrepair in the later 20th century, its murals covered in grey paint. It was declared a National Heritage Monument on 7 January 2000, and from 2006 it was restored with help from the NCB Foundation and a Spanish government heritage programme, the first time an English-speaking Caribbean country had been included; the Spanish restorer Antonio Sánchez-Barriga trained 31 local workers to recover the frescoes. It has hosted the state funerals of the prime ministers Michael Manley and Edward Seaga.
The papal visit of 1993
Pope John Paul II visited Jamaica from 9 to 11 August 1993, on his way to World Youth Day in Denver, the only papal visit to the island. He was received on arrival by the Governor-General, Sir Howard Cooke, and Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, and spoke of Caribbean integration and regional unity. On 10 August he led morning prayer at Holy Trinity Cathedral with the bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians and religious of Kingston, Montego Bay and the Vicariate of Mandeville, recalling the Franciscans of 1512, the Jesuits and the Scottish Franciscan and English Mercy sisters, and celebrated Mass at the National Stadium. His stadium homily dwelt on the family, saying the legacy of slavery, which had destroyed family bonds, could still be seen in children and single mothers struggling without support. He also met leaders of other churches.
Beliefs and worship
Catholics in Jamaica share the beliefs of the worldwide Catholic Church, in communion with the Pope in Rome, since May 2025 Pope Leo XIV. Catholics believe that the church’s teaching rests on both Scripture and Sacred Tradition, and they celebrate seven sacraments, with the Mass at the centre of worship. Clergy are bishops, priests and deacons. The three dioceses reported 48 permanent deacons at the end of 2022, ordained men who may be married and who assist in parishes.
Some features are distinctively Jamaican. The island’s patron is Our Lady of the Assumption, honoured, as John Paul II put it in 1993, as “Queen Assumed into Heaven”. Because many parishes, especially in the rural west, have no resident priest, lay leaders and deacons carry much of the weekly ministry. With nearly 100 educational institutions and barely 2% of the population, Catholic schools teach many children from other churches, and publicly funded church schools must admit pupils of all faiths. Fr Richard Ho Lung, known as the “reggae priest”, has written Jamaican-style liturgical music and staged at least 20 musicals, from Moses to Jesus 2025, as a music ministry. The church takes part in the Jamaica Council of Churches.
Organisation
The three Jamaican sees, together with the Diocese of Belize City–Belmopan and the Mission of the Cayman Islands, form the ecclesiastical province of Kingston, which belongs to the Antilles Episcopal Conference. Montego Bay has been without its own bishop since Burchell McPherson resigned in October 2023; Bishop John Persaud of Mandeville has administered it since then.
| Jurisdiction | Established | Cathedral | Head (as of 2026) | Catholics | Parishes | Priests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archdiocese of Kingston in Jamaica | 1837 (vicariate); 1956 (diocese); 1967 (archdiocese) | Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kingston | Archbishop Kenneth Richards (since 2016) | 59,100 | 32 | 56 |
| Diocese of Montego Bay | 1967 | Most Blessed Sacrament, Montego Bay | Vacant; Bishop John Persaud, Apostolic Administrator (since 2023) | 10,485 | 15 (plus 20 missions) | 11 |
| Diocese of Mandeville | 1991 (vicariate); 1997 (diocese) | St Paul of the Cross, Mandeville | Bishop John Persaud (since 2020) | 1,365 | 15 | 14 |
Figures are church-reported statistics compiled by GCatholic.org, data to 31 December 2022. The Mandeville figure has fallen sharply in recent church reports (Catholic-Hierarchy lists 4,822 in 2019) and probably reflects a change in counting; treat it with caution.
Schools and institutions
Education has been the church’s largest contribution to Jamaican life. The Gleaner reported in 2020 that there were nearly 100 Catholic educational institutions on the island. Most Catholic high schools are now government-aided public schools that keep a Catholic ethos and admit pupils of all faiths.
| Institution | Place | Founded | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| St George’s College | Winchester Park, Kingston | 1850 | Founded by exiled Spanish Jesuits; grant-in-aid from 1936; built the island’s first school science laboratory in 1939 |
| Immaculate Conception High School | Constant Spring, St Andrew | origins 1857 | Franciscan Sisters; moved from Duke Street to the old Constant Spring Hotel in 1940–41 |
| Alpha Academy, Alpha Boys’ School and Alpha campus | Kingston | 1880 onward | Sisters of Mercy; Alpha Boys’ band is known for the musicians it has produced |
| Campion College | Kingston | 1960 | Jesuit; founded by Fr Samuel Carter; public and co-educational since 1976 |
| Holy Childhood High School | Half-Way-Tree | – | Franciscan Missionary Sisters (“Blue Sisters”) |
| Mount Alvernia High School | Montego Bay | – | Founded by Franciscan Sisters |
| Marymount High School | Highgate, St Mary | – | Founded by Franciscan Sisters |
| Mount St Joseph Catholic High | Mandeville | 2014 | Diocese of Mandeville with the Sisters of Mercy |
| Catholic College of Mandeville | Mandeville | – | Tertiary college |
| St Joseph’s Teachers’ College | Kingston | – | Teacher training; being incorporated into the University of the West Indies (2020) |
| St Michael’s Theological College | Golding Avenue, Kingston | 1952 (as seminary) | Affiliated with UWI; since 1996 trains laity, with seminarians studying at the regional seminary in Trinidad |
| Msgr Gladstone Wilson STEM College | Montego Bay | c. 2020 | In association with Campion College |
Health and social care
- St Joseph’s Hospital, Deanery Road, Kingston, was opened by the Dominican Sisters on 8 December 1916 with 25 beds. The sisters handed it to the archdiocese in 1970, and the South East Regional Health Authority took it over on 1 April 2022.
- Missionaries of the Poor run homes in Kingston for destitute, sick and disabled people and for mothers and newborns, beginning with the Faith Centre on Laws Street (see below).
- Sisters run clinics and homes elsewhere, including the Missionary Sisters of Charity’s home for destitute elderly people at Balaclava, St Elizabeth, and the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor’s Good Shepherd Clinic at the Montego Bay cathedral.
- The archdiocese has a Catholic Social Action Secretariat and a Family Life Commission, and publishes the newspaper Catholic Opinion.
Missionaries of the Poor
The Missionaries of the Poor is the best-known religious order founded in Jamaica. Fr Richard Ho Lung, a Jamaican of Chinese parentage and a former Jesuit, founded it on 19 July 1981 as the Brothers of the Poor, opening its first house in downtown Kingston with two companions. Its headquarters is the Monastery of Corpus Christi at 3 North Street. The order had 383 members, including 15 priests, at the end of 2024, many of them from the Philippines, India and Africa, and works in Haiti, India and the Philippines as well as Jamaica; its superior general since 2017 is Br Anil Minj. A women’s branch, the Missionaries of the Poor Sisters, was also founded by Ho Lung. In September 2026, aged 87, he was preparing a new musical, Sugar Cain, at the National Arena to raise funds for the order’s work.
Notable churches
| Church | Place | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Holy Trinity Cathedral | North Street, Kingston | Seat of the Archbishop; opened 1911 after the 1907 earthquake; architect Raymond F. Almirall; 85-foot copper dome; National Heritage Monument since 2000 |
| Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament | Montego Bay, St James | Seat of the Diocese of Montego Bay; its rectory lost its roof to Hurricane Melissa |
| St Paul of the Cross Cathedral | Mandeville, Manchester | Seat of the Diocese of Mandeville |
| Our Lady of Perpetual Help | Seville, St Ann | Built 1939–43 beside the ruins of the 16th-century Spanish stone church, using its stones |
| Mary, Gate of Heaven | Negril, Westmoreland | Serves residents and visitors near Seven Mile Beach |
| St Theresa’s Church | Black River, St Elizabeth | Church, school and rectory severely damaged by Hurricane Melissa |
| St Joseph’s Church | Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland | Destroyed by Hurricane Melissa in October 2025 |
| Our Lady of the Angels | Molynes Road, Kingston | In the care of Franciscan friars from 1958 |
| Church of Reconciliation | Bridgeport, St Catherine | Dedicated 4 September 1977 |
| Catholic parish, Seaford Town | Westmoreland | Community settled by German immigrants in the 1830s, for whom Catholicism remains central; every parish building lost its roof in 2025 |
Notable Jamaican Catholics
- Jessie Ripoll (Mother M. Peter Claver), founder of the Alpha orphanage in 1880 and one of the first Jamaican Sisters of Mercy.
- Mgr Gladstone Wilson (1906–1974), priest and linguist from Mavis Bank, St Andrew, who spoke eight languages besides English and preached at Marcus Garvey’s reinterment in 1964; St George’s College named him its Student of the 20th Century.
- Archbishop Samuel Carter, SJ (1919–2002), first Jamaican Catholic bishop (1966) and first Jamaican Archbishop of Kingston (1970–1994); founding headmaster of Campion College.
- Archbishop Edgerton Clarke (died 13 February 2025, aged 95), first Bishop of Montego Bay (1967–1994) and Archbishop of Kingston (1994–2004).
- Fr Richard Ho Lung, founder of the Missionaries of the Poor and composer of religious musicals.
- Bishop Burchell McPherson (died 25 March 2026, aged 74), a convert at 24 who served about 25 years in the inner-city parishes of St Pius X and St Peter Claver in Kingston before leading the Diocese of Montego Bay from 2013 to 2023.
- Archbishop Kenneth Richards, born in Linstead and raised in Spanish Town in an Anglican family, converted as a boy, former parish priest in Harbour View, Waterhouse and Hagley Park Road; Archbishop of Kingston since 2016.
- Usain Bolt, the sprinter, raised in an Adventist home, is a Catholic who wears a Miraculous Medal and crosses himself before races; he took St Leo as a name.
Membership and growth
The census counts people who identify as Roman Catholic. Between 2001 and 2011 their number fell from 67,204 to 57,946, a drop of 13.8%, in line with the decline of the other historic churches while Pentecostal, Church of God and Adventist numbers grew. The 2022 census religion tables have not yet been published.
| Census | Roman Catholic | Share of population | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 67,204 | 2.59% | – |
| 2011 | 57,946 | 2.16% | ▼ 13.8% |
Source: STATIN, Population and Housing Census 2011. Shares are of persons answering the religion question. See Jamaica Religion Stats for all denominations.
The church’s own figures are usually higher than the census, and they are inconsistent from year to year, partly because diocesan boundaries changed. They suggest a church that grew steadily until the 1960s and has since shrunk.
| Year | Catholics (church figures) | Coverage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1921 | about 37,000 (about 4%) | Whole island | Estimate cited by Wikipedia |
| 1948 | 79,898 | Vicariate of Jamaica | Catholic-Hierarchy |
| 1966 | 139,508 | Diocese of Kingston (whole island) | Catholic-Hierarchy |
| 2022 | about 71,000 | Three dioceses, 64 parishes | GCatholic |
Hurricane Melissa and current issues
Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica on 28 October 2025 as a Category 5 storm. Kingston was largely spared, but the two western dioceses, both led by Bishop John Persaud, were among the hardest hit. Visiting parishes afterwards, he said, people greeted him with the words “Bishop, we’re alive.”
- Diocese of Montego Bay. The chancery, the cathedral rectory, the parish hall, the convent and all three diocesan schools in Montego Bay lost their roofs. St Joseph’s Church in Savanna-la-Mar was razed, leaving its altar open to the sky, and the Sir Clifford Campbell School nearby was badly damaged. St Mary’s church and school at Cambridge and St Agnes at Chester Castle lost their roofs; the church at Discovery Bay lost its roof entirely and part of the Lucea church roof went. At Seaford Town every building lost its roof and the parish priest slept in his car. The Franciscan friars reported extensive damage at St Luke’s, Little London, and ran a kitchen in Negril expecting 400 to 500 people.
- Diocese of Mandeville. Four communities in St Elizabeth were badly hit. In Black River, where about 90% of roofs were destroyed, St Theresa’s church lost its roof, doors and windows, the rectory was seriously damaged, the parish school will have to be rebuilt and the historic Magdala House on the grounds was reduced to rubble; the tabernacle survived untouched, and parishioners kept the Epiphany in January 2026 under tarpaulins. At Maggotty the rectory, convent and clinic lost their roofs, though Holy Spirit Church stood dry. The Missionary Sisters of Charity’s home for elderly people at Balaclava lost its roof, and the clinic roof at Santa Cruz was blown away.
- Relief. Archbishop Kenneth Richards met Bishop Persaud in Black River on 1 November and, in a Mass on 3 November, urged Jamaicans in the less affected east not to “gloat, act indifferent, or self-satisfied”. The archdiocese held a Hurricane Melissa Relief Fund collection on 23 November 2025. Caritas, Catholic Relief Services, Food For The Poor, Cross Catholic Outreach and the Pontifical Mission Societies supported relief, and Catholic schools in Kingston took in displaced students.
- Rebuilding. By mid-2026 the western church was only beginning to plan reconstruction. A government Community Church Clean-up and Restoration Initiative, worth J$75 million, began paying grants for minor repairs to more than 400 churches of all denominations across St Elizabeth, Hanover, St James, Trelawny and Westmoreland in April 2026.
Other developments in 2025–2026: Archbishop emeritus Edgerton Clarke died in February 2025 and Bishop emeritus Burchell McPherson in March 2026, his funeral held at Holy Trinity Cathedral on 18 April 2026. As of October 2026 no new Bishop of Montego Bay had been named. In May 2026 the apostolic nuncio for the region, Archbishop Santiago de Wit Guzmán, was appointed to the Netherlands. The Diocese of Mandeville’s falling church statistics and the 2011 census decline point to a church that, like the Anglicans and United Church, is shrinking even as its schools remain in high demand.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1494 | A priest with Columbus celebrates Mass off the Jamaican coast |
| 1509 | Spanish settle at Sevilla la Nueva, St Ann |
| 1512 | Franciscan friars ordered to Jamaica |
| 1515 | Pope Leo X makes Jamaica an abbacy |
| 1520s | Peter Martyr of Anghiera named abbot; first stone church begun at Sevilla |
| 1655 | English conquest; Catholic worship banned and churches burned |
| 1688–89 | A priest sent under James II; ban restored after his fall |
| 1791–92 | Relief Act; Irish Franciscan Anthony Quigley sent; Haitian refugees arrive |
| 1837 | Apostolic Vicariate of Jamaica created, 10 January; English Jesuits in charge |
| 1850 | Exiled Spanish Jesuits found St George’s College, 2 September |
| 1857 | Franciscan Sisters arrive; Immaculate Conception Academy begins |
| 1880 | Jessie Ripoll opens the Alpha orphanage |
| 1890 | Sisters of Mercy arrive from Bermondsey |
| 1907 | Kingston earthquake destroys Holy Trinity Church |
| 1911 | Holy Trinity Cathedral opens |
| 1916 | St Joseph’s Hospital opened by Dominican Sisters |
| 1919 | New England Jesuits take over the mission |
| 1929 | Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help founded |
| 1939–43 | Our Lady of Perpetual Help built at Seville, St Ann |
| 1952 | St Michael’s Seminary opens |
| 1956 | Diocese of Kingston created |
| 1960 | Campion College opens |
| 1966 | Samuel Carter becomes the first Jamaican Catholic bishop |
| 1967 | Kingston becomes an archdiocese; Diocese of Montego Bay created |
| 1970 | Carter becomes first Jamaican Archbishop of Kingston |
| 1981 | Fr Richard Ho Lung founds the Brothers (later Missionaries) of the Poor |
| 1991 | Apostolic Vicariate of Mandeville created |
| 1993 | Pope John Paul II visits, 9–11 August |
| 1997 | Mandeville becomes a diocese |
| 2000 | Holy Trinity Cathedral declared a National Heritage Monument; Cayman Islands made a separate mission |
| 2006 | Restoration of Holy Trinity Cathedral begins |
| 2011 | Census counts 57,946 Catholics, down 13.8% on 2001 |
| 2016 | Kenneth Richards installed as Archbishop of Kingston |
| 2020 | John Persaud becomes Bishop of Mandeville |
| 2022 | St Joseph’s Hospital transferred to the South East Regional Health Authority |
| 2023 | Bishop Burchell McPherson resigns; Montego Bay placed under an apostolic administrator |
| 2025 | Hurricane Melissa, 28 October, devastates churches and schools in the west |
| 2026 | Death of Bishop emeritus McPherson; church rebuilding in St Elizabeth and Westmoreland |
Updates to this page
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 12 October 2026 | Page created. |
Sources: Statistical Institute of Jamaica, Population and Housing Census 2011; Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston, history (kingstonarchdioceseja.org); GCatholic.org, Archdiocese of Kingston in Jamaica, Diocese of Montego Bay, Diocese of Mandeville, recent events in Jamaica and Missionaries of the Poor (accessed October 2026); Catholic-Hierarchy.org, Archdiocese of Kingston and Diocese of Mandeville statistics, and Samuel Carter; National Library of Jamaica, Samuel Carter biography; Vatican, John Paul II’s arrival speech, cathedral homily and National Stadium homily, Kingston (9–10 August 1993); New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia, Peter Martyr d’Anghiera; The Gleaner, Kenneth Richards installed (7 July 2016) and profile (6 May 2016), “Renewing our island through Catholic education” (20 December 2020), “Faith shaken, not broken” (2 November 2025) and church hurricane grants (20 April 2026); Jamaica Observer, Alpha and the Sisters of Mercy (27 January 2013), impact of Franciscans on Jamaica (3 October 2018), Holy Trinity Cathedral restoration (16 October 2010), death of Archbishop Edgerton Clarke (13 February 2025) and Fr Ho Lung’s Sugar Cain (25 September 2026); Antilles Episcopal Conference, tributes to Bishop McPherson (March 2026); Fides, resignation of the Bishop of Montego Bay (16 October 2023); Catholic News (Trinidad), recovery and clergy reports from Jamaica (12 November 2025) and Archbishop Richards’ appeal (5 November 2025); OSV News via The Catholic Register (6 November 2025); St Louis Review (29 October 2025); Pontifical Mission Societies (1 July 2026); The Catholic Leader, Fr Ho Lung (2015); America magazine, Usain Bolt (2017); St George’s College, Mgr Gladstone Wilson awards; Campion College factbook; Immaculate Conception High School, heritage; Ministry of Education, Mount St Joseph High; South East Regional Health Authority, St Joseph’s Hospital; World Council of Churches, Jamaica; Wikipedia, Catholic Church in Jamaica, St George’s College and Holy Trinity Cathedral (Kingston); Jamaica Homes glossary and Jamaica Religion Stats.