A priest of the Catholic Church in Ghana has indicated that the Church shouldn’t have abandoned one of its own, former Auditor General Daniel Yaw Domelevo when he was asked to proceed on leave in the line of duty .
According to Rev. Fr. Ebenezer Hanson, a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra, the guilt of the church prevented it from supporting the former Auditor General, who publicly demonstrated his faith as a catholic during his tenure in office.
He noted that even if Mr. Domelevo did not identify as a Catholic, the Church should have supported him in his efforts to protect the public purse.
Fr. Hanson in a video published on youtube expressed worry over what he described as fear among members of the clergy in the line of speaking truth to power.
“As a Catholic, you can’t be afraid. Catholic priest, you can’t be afraid. Catholic Bishop, you can’t be afraid. No, it is guilt that is inflicting us. If that wasn’t the case, our own Domelevo, a Catholic won’t be doing good by protecting the public purse and we won’t support him,”
“I am sure if Domelevo decides to come and audit the Church for free from NCS to the parishes, he would be even “killed” before he starts work. It’s true. Maybe that’s why we couldn’t fight for him because he is our own son. Even if he wasn’t a Catholic and was doing good, we needed to support him. Christ said whoever witnesses before men about me, I shall be his witness before my father,” he said.
He added that “We abandoned him when he needed us most but priests and bishops were at his thanksgiving. Where were they? He did say something that we need to think about. He said through all he went through, nobody came to him. He mentioned the few who supported him but where were we Catholics? What are we afraid of? Or the president is our candidate? If he is, they should let us know.”
Fr. Hanson further noted that the Church would soon return to the Church of old where the truth would be spoken without fear or favour.
According to him, the onus lies on Catholic priests and Bishops who do not have children and wives to lay their lives for the betterment of the people and not look on for persons like Kaaka who have families to die for speaking truth to power.
“The church will become the unshakable Church of old. Where we speak the truth and we die for it. We should not allow Kaaka and others to suffer when they have children. We as Catholic priests and bishops don’t have children. That is why we should go all out and die for the truth and for the generation but we are rather moving backward,” Fr. Hanson said.
