Remembering Bishop Dorick Wright

Noel Leslie

Father Leslie, in remembering Bishop Wright, admits that the most challenging time in his leadership of the Catholic Church in Belize was when he was faced with the gender issue.  Despite the position that he took and the support he received from other denominations, Wright was going up against the Government of Belize.  Aside from that legal battle, Bishop Wright also struggled with complications from diabetes, which slowed him down considerably from active participation in the church.

Fr. Noel Leslie, Friend of Bishop Wright

“I would say one of the most challenging moments in his life was when he had to deal with the gender issue and he had to confront that and give his opinions about that, trying to keep in line with what the church would believe and some people would see him as conservative while some people would see him as progressive and so forth.  That was a challenge for him but he did what he felt he had to do at that particular time in the life of the country.  Now his illness, I would say his illness affected him tremendously.  You know, I think he was a bit frustrated at times and just as how everybody asked the question why, why did this have to happen to me?  And as men, several times you would pose that particular question.  But you know, I guess he just accepted that as one of the things that happened in life and he tried to deal with it as best as he possibly could but it did hinder his work tremendously.  I think for him it was a frustration that he couldn‘t accomplish much, you know, and that‘s where the question why would come in.  Why did this have to happen to me at this particular time?  But anyway, he weathered the storm in spite of him having an amputation and so forth.”

The church is now preparing to lay the Bishop to rest during a state of emergency, which has restrictions on the movement of persons and sets a limit of ten on persons attending a funeral.