A Priest of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ) working in Ghana’s capital of Accra, has urged parents and Ghanaians in general to make the strenuous effort to pray against the vistimisation of their children who are innocent in the eyes of God.
In a homily at a Mass to climax the Week-long celebration of the Holy Childhood Week at the Our Lady of the Assumption (OLA) Parish at New Achimota, Accra, on Sunday, February 12, Rev. Fr. Evans Kotoku, MCCJ, lamented how the dignity of children were being taken for granted, charging parents to always endeavour to guide and supervise the activities of the children, who he said were precious gifts from God.
According to him, off late children are easily exposed to many social and moral evils, hence, they needed to be protected, asking parents again to guide them so that they would walk in the law of the Lord.
Fr. Kotoku who is the Formator of the Good Shepherd Postulancy, a Seminary of the Comboni Missionaries at New Achimota, emphasised the need for children also to be protected from all forms of abuses and atrocities, entreating parents to show love and compassion to their children in all their endeavours.
Adding, he said “As parents, you need to be passionate about the future of your children and raising them in the ways of the Lord.”
He congratulated the children who were all dressed in traditional apparels for taking up all the ministerial roles in the liturgy- singing, lecturing, ushering, bidding prayers and serving on the altar.
He advised them to obey and respect their parents so that they could grow in wisdom and stature.
The week-long activities, started with a launch on Sunday, February 5, 2023 by the Children.
In a collective message, the children of the OLA Parish expressed gratitude to God whose grace and kindness made it possible for them to have a great week.
“Dear parents we your children humbly appeal to you to encourage us to do more in God’s house,” they said, appealing to them also to continue to correct them when they go wrong.
According to the children, “It is our wish to have you closer to us. Please give us the listening ear whenever we call for your attention.”
“We do not want to fall into traps that will bring shame and disgrace to you,” they added.
World Missionary Childhood Day is a special day dedicated to all children to re-awaken their missionary spirit and raise more awareness about the Holy Childhood Association.
The World Missionary Day is also an opportunity to support children from all over the world, without distinction or particulars, through the Universal Solidarity Fund of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which missionaries can access for works for the benefit of the little ones.
The Society of Holy Childhood, is one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, present in more than 130 countries around the world, with the motto: “Children evangelize children, children pray for children, children help children all over the world.”
In the mid-nineteenth century, Msgr. Charles de Forbin-Janson, a French Bishop, struck by the news arriving from French missionaries in China regarding the numerous children who died without having received baptism, had the idea of involving the children of France so that, through prayer and material collaboration, they could help their Chinese peers.
“An Ave Maria a day, a penny a month” to take care of a child and save a soul, was the commitment proposed by the Bishop of Nancy to French children.
It was May 19, 1843, and with this initiative the seed was sown from which the Work would sprout.
Years later, the motto “children help children” was coined, which well summarizes the intuition of the founder and the charism of the work which in a short time, spread from France to Belgium, Spain, Italy, and many other Nations.
The Christian communities became aware of the missionary strength of the children and on 3 May 1922, Pope Pius XI aware of the great contribution that the Society had made to the missions in about eighty years, recognized it as Pontifical.
On December 4, 1950, Pope Pius XII instituted World Holy Childhood Day.
In a report from Emmanuel Adu Gyamfi on same day at the Cecilia Church at Ofanor North, an outstation of OLA Parish, another Comboni Priest, Rev. Fr. Job, Plinga, MCCJ, advised the children to be obedient to their parents and teachers in order to choose what is good in their lives.
He said, some children grow to blame their parents when things are not going well with them but forgotten that they did not heed to the advice of their parents.
He, therefore, admonished them not to be angry because anger leads to murder, urging them to learn the Commandments of God and put them in to practice.
The Missionary Childhood Society aims to help children develop a missionary spirit and protagonism; encourages them to share faith and material means especially with the neediest children; promotes and supports missionary vocations ad gentes.
It is also a tool for growth in faith, also from a vocational perspective, and helps educators to progressively awaken universal missionary awareness in children.
Today, there are millions of ‘little missionaries’ distributed in parishes, schools, and movements on five continents who, through prayer, the offering of their small sacrifices, and missionary witness, contribute concretely to ensuring that many children can eat, study, have a roof to sleep under, take care of themselves, get to know Jesus and the Word.
“The mission is done together” is the slogan of World Mission Day for Children 2023 which, starting from the verse “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8), focuses on the protagonism of children, who together in synodal style, carry out a just world, as the artisans do when they create their works.
Only together with Jesus and the others, can we ‘form’ a more beautiful world.
