As a priest, his strong social and political statements indeed make him an anomaly. However, he has been rather vocal since his days of basketball and public speaking at St. Mary’s College. After entering the Seminary of St John Vianney and the Uganda Martyrs in 1967, Fr Harvey attended UWI where he studied Politics and Sociology. He then attained a MA in Theology magna cum laude from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.

In 1976, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Anthony Pantin who once told him that “BA can mean Bachelor of Arts…it can also mean Big A double S-and we all have the potential to be both”. It is this kind of wisdom that he passes on to youth, the disadvantaged and others. After ordination and some pastoral work, he did further post-graduate studies at Lancaster University and the Graduate Theological Union in California. He teaches courses in ethics and comparative religion at the Seminary and UWI. In 2012, he received an honourary LLD from UWI.

This down-to-earth man of the cloth understands the realities of communities such as Laventille, Morvant, Maloney, San Fernando and Gonzales in which he has served as priest. In Laventille, he allowed youth to play in front of the Shrine, a space which often became Desperados Steelband stage. He develops a close relationship with his community and relates to them on their level of understanding.