Father Clement Stanislaus Jolly was a Catholic priest belonging to the religious congregation of the Redemptorist Priests and Brothers (C.Ss.R). He was born on November 13, 1932 in the village of St. Joseph in Dominica. After graduation from the Dominica Grammar School in 1950, he taught at the St. Mary’s Academy, a catholic secondary school of boys. He later migrated to the US where he was drafted into the US Army and served for two years. Fr. Jolly was professed as a Redemptorist on December 31, 1956 and ordained a priest on February 22, 1962 after which he returned to the region. He served in many parishes in the Diocese of Roseau, Dominica and in the St John-Basseterre Diocese- Antigua, St Kitts, Montserrat. In 1970, he went to the University of Rome where he studied Dogmatic Theology and later received his Licentiate in Systematic Theology from the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. In addition to his regular pastoral work, Fr. Clement Jolly has worked extensively with the youth and was a strong advocate for education and feeding programmes. He has organized Quizzes for Secondary Schools which he moderated on the local radio stations as well as Essay Competitions for Secondary Schools and the Dominica State College. During his period of service in Roseau Dominica he organized a Recreation Centre for Boys and provided games and reading materials for many who were at risk of offending.
Fr. Clement Jolly has published twenty-three (23) books on a wide range of topics including social issues, matters relating to the Church, Faith and Spirituality as well as Poetry. Among his published titles are : ‘Adventure In Hope’, ‘Children of the Sunset’, ‘Rainbow Man’, ‘Word and Life’, ‘A Time To Remember’, and several books of Poetry including, ‘Song of the Dove’ and ‘Lilies in the Fields’. His last published book ‘A Year to Remember’ was launched in 2015. He was the founder of the Magazine “Building Bridges” of which fifteen (15) issues have been published to date. Fr Jolly was a regular columnist in newspapers in Dominica. In 1993, he received the Meritorious Service Award, Dominica’s second highest award and later the Golden Drum Award. Fr Clement S. Jolly C.Ss.R passed away on Saturday December 16th 2017 in Dominica. ‘To Be a Christian’ is his 24th book and will be published posthumously.