The Emeritus Archbishop of Kumasi, Most Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong, has noted that development must bring about peace and prosperity or it is an idle concept.
“It is the ability to cope with problems, whether they be economic, military, political, social, legal or cultural,” he said at a two-day Conference to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the presence of the Society of African Missions in Kumasi.
The Conference held from January 18 to 19 was on the theme: “Kumasi Meeting point of Religion, Royalty and Diplomacy: Commemorating 140 years of the visit of Father Auguste Moreau (SMA) to Manhyia.”
Speaking to a large audience at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, he said the Mission of Christ is a Mission of peace.
“Christ made it clear that He had come into this world to establish a Kingdom. That Kingdom is, par excellence, the Kingdom of peace. Hence, Isaiah already could say “unto us a child is born, the Prince of Peace,” he stated.
He stated: “After His resurrection, whenever He appeared to his disciples, He wished them peace, His own peace. St. Pope Paul VI identifies the essence of Mission with development which he says is the new name for peace.”
“Can we seriously call a world in which the reign of money and the pursuit of power take precedence over the pre-eminence of human life and dignity, a world in which savage terrorist activities are so prevalent, developed? He queried and answered NO.
Archbishop Sarpong noted that the so-called civilisation in people found themselves is anything but civil, adding, “It concerns itself mostly with irrelevancies.”
At the end of the day, what is important is not that scientific medicine has postponed our death but that we die at whatever age, in peace and with honour.
He lamented that human beings are saddled with innumerable challenges which in the past were dealt with adequately.
“We didn’t have banks but we had our way of saving our money. We didn’t have judges, prosecuting lawyers and defence lawyers but we had our own judicial systems that served our legal life well.”
He stated “We didn’t have schools but we educated our children in the best possible way to live.”
As the Guest Speaker at the opening ceremony, he said “we cannot do without science and technology but science and technology without humanity and the arts is brutalising.”
Mission, he said, therefore helps people to acknowledge their own dignity and to promote that of others, making reference to St. Leo the Great who said: Christian, know your dignity and avoid all that is contrary to it”.
According to Archbishop Sarpong, often, when one talks of development, it is normally presented as if under-development preceded development.
“Upon close consideration of the ultimate aim of development, however, it would appear that in fact development is antecedent to underdevelopment,” he said.
He, therefore, stated that “Mission, Culture and Development, have the same aim, the destruction of human disvalues that are contrary to the building of the Kingdom of peace, namely, power, wealth, ethnocentrism and false solidarity.”
“Mission depends upon culture to produce development in the form of righteousness, uprightness, holistic education, integral health care, good citizenship for the poorest of the poor, in short, the building of the civilisation of love, based upon the supreme philosophy of life that kept the African ethos ever going, he added.
By Sr. Angela Amaechi, FSP, Sr. Esther Kutie, SVI, Sr. Francisca Akogo, SJC, Sr. Irene Mildred Anaeke, DMMM, Sr. Michelle Ogah, DMMM
