Dominican born Cardinal Kelvin Edward celebrates his 60th anniversary as an ordained priest on April 17

Dominican born Cardinal Kelvin Edward celebrates his 60th anniversary as an ordained priest on April 17, 2016, at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium.
 
He was born on February 15, 1933 in Roseau Dominica, one of the nine children of Major Edward Mosley Felix, Chief of the Dominica Police Force and his wife Melanie Cadette. His primary education was at the Roseau Boys School, and later attended the Dominica Grammar School.
 
He studied for the priesthood at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney in Trinidad, and was ordained as a priest on April 8th 1956 in Dominica. He was the first diocesan priest to be ordained in Dominica.
 
Cardinal Felix attained a Diploma in Adult Education from the University of Nova Scotia in 1963, and a Masters’ Degree in Sociology and Anthropology, from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. In 1970 he completed post graduate studies in Sociology at the University of Bradford in Yorkshire, England.
 
He subsequently taught at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and Ugandan Martyrs, Trinidad, and was also a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. He served as Principal of the St. Mary’s Academy from 1972 to 1975.
 
He later served as Associate General Secretary of the Caribbean Conference of Churches from 1981 to 1986, and as President of the Antilles Episcopal Conference from 1991 to 1997. In addition, he served internationally on various Pontifical committees of the Holy See, such as the Pontifical Council for Family Life, Vox Clara, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and the Synodal Council for America.
 
He was appointed as Archbishop of the province of Castries on October 8th 1981, and his province included the dioceses of St. George’s in Grenada, Kingstown, Roseau and St. John’s/Basseterre. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia in 1986.
 
At the Papal Consistory of February 22nd 2014, Pope Francis elevated the then Archbishop Felix to the rank of Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was appointed Cardinal Priest of Santa Maria della Salute a Primavalle.
 
In addition to the many distinguished positions in which he has served, Cardinal Felix was also awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1992, the Dominica Medal of Honour, Dominica’s highest award, in 1999 and the St. Lucia Medal of Honour in 2002.
 
Cardinal Felix retired in 2008 and returned to his homeland Dominica, where he served as parish Priest of Grand Bay, and later served in Soufriere, where he still resides.