The Most Rev. John Alphonse Asiedu, SVD, Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Donkorkrom has stressed the fact that all Catholics have arduous task to help avert the dwindling Catholic Population in Ghana.
“We all have the responsibility from now on as Christ’s faithful to see to it that the number of our Catholic population does not see a further decline but rather should increase,” he said in an address at the opening of the first biannual meeting of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious Ghana on March 13, 2024.
The Five-day Meeting held at the Arnold Janssen Spirituality Centre at Bortianor Hills, Tuba in Accra from March 11 to 15, focused on Growing the Catholic Church in Ghana through Collaborative Ministry: The Role of Consecrated Men and Women.
It was attended by about 70 Superiors of all Religious Congregations in the West African country of Ghana.
At the Plenary Assembly of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) held at Sunyani in 2023, the issue about the declining Catholic Population came up strongly.
It was observed that between the year 2000 and 2021, the decline has been continuous and at the rate of about 3.0% as reflected in the last two national population and housing census.
The Bishops Conference saw the trend as very worrying for the Church and noted in its 2023 communique that this decline in the Catholic population calls for a deep reflection on the part of all of us: the lay faithful, consecrated men and women, priests and bishops.
Due to the disturbing decline in Catholic population in Ghana, GCBC reflected more widely and deeply on the situation under the theme: “Growing the Catholic Church in Ghana through collaborative ministry.”
According to Bishop Asiedu who is the Episcopal Chair for Priests and Religious in Ghana “We need to commit ourselves to working together “to stem the tide of the decline, and to begin to grow the population of Catholics in Ghana.”
As means of fostering the growth of the Catholic Church in Ghana, the Apostolic Vicar of Donkorkrom called on the Religious to intensify primary evangelization through missionary outreach programmes.
He emphasised on the need to embark on an intense and enhanced catechesis where the priests and you the religious take active part through recruitment, formation and radical supervision of catechists.
He asked the Consecrated Men and Women to endeavour to bring the Church closer to the faithful through the establishment of Church communities in towns, suburbs and villages.
He strongly proposed to the Major Superiors to engage and train the youth in the areas of pastoral ministry as well as intensify chaplaincy ministry for Catholic Schools and Non-Catholic Schools and other institutions.
“My dear Superiors of Consecrated Men and Women, these are but few resolutions that I think if radically applied in the spirit of witnessing to the gospel, it could forestall further decline in the catholic population in the country and instead boost the number to the appreciable level that we all could be proud of,” he indicated.
This task, Bishop Asiedu noted, was a collaborative ministry, appealing to the Religious and Catholics in general to embrace it in the spirit of a Synodal Church.
Present at the opening ceremony were the Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, CSSp, Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra; Very Rev. Fr. Paul Saa-Dade Ennin, SMA, President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious, Ghana and the Provincial Superior of the Society of African Missions (SMA).
By Veronica Sena Amenya//Newswatchgh.com
