PRESS RELEASE
COMMUNIQUE ISSUED BY THE CONFERENCE OF MAJOR SUPERIORS OF RELIGIOUS, GHANA (CMSR-GH) AT THE END OF ITS BIANNUAL CONFERENCE HELD AT THE ARNOLD JASSEN SPIRITUALITY CENTER, BORTIANOR HILLS, MARCH 11-15, 2024
- GREETINGS
“The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen!” (2 Cor 13:14)
- PREAMBLE
We, Members of the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious -Ghana (CMSR-GH), held our first bi-annual meeting for the year 2024 at the Arnold Janssen Spirituality Center, Bortianor Hills, in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, from March 11-15, 2024. We deliberated on “Consecrated Life and Collaborative ministry in the local church”, a theme inspired by the call of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference at their last Plenary Meeting in Sunyani, on “Fostering the Growth of the Church in Ghana through Collaborative Ministry”. As Consecrated men and women, we take this call of the Bishops seriously and view it as a challenge to live out our prophetic role in the church and in society. We would like, therefore, to share the fruits of our reflections at the end of the session with you, our beloved brothers and sisters in Consecrated Life, the Catholic Faithful, as well as men and women of good will.
- WHO WE ARE (CMSR-GH)
The CMSR-GH is the umbrella body of leaders, designated as Major Superiors, of Men and Women Religious Congregations of the Catholic Church in Ghana. There are 71 of such congregations in Ghana. The Religious are by identity, men and women who, obedient to the Father’s call and the prompting of the Holy Spirit have chosen this special way of following Christ, in order to devote themselves to Him with an “undivided heart “(1 Cor 7: 34). Like the Apostles, we too have left everything behind in order to be with Christ and to put ourselves, as He did, at the service of God and of our brothers and sisters. In this way, “through the many charisms of spiritual and apostolic life bestowed on them by the Holy Spirit, they help make the mystery and mission of the Church shine forth, and in doing so contribute to the renewal of society”. (St. Pope John Paul II).
The Catholic Church in Ghana owes its existence to the pioneer work of the members of these Congregations. Many of the Catholic institutions like schools and hospitals were established by and/or managed by these Religious. You find our members, whether religious priests, religious sisters or religious brothers, in their various habits, involved in various social intervention projects of the Catholic Church in the areas of education, health, socio-pastoral, ministry to the poor and marginalized, justice and peace and integrity of creation issues, women empowerment, girl-child education, safe child advocacy and fight against human trafficking, and many others. As Consecrated Persons, “the life we live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us”. (cf. Gal. 2:20).
- THE JUBILEE YEAR 2025 – A PROPHETIC MOMENT OF HOPE
Our Holy Father, Pope Francis has launched the journey towards the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2025 under the theme: “Pilgrims of Hope” and is inviting all to make this year 2024 “a symphony of prayer” in preparation of the Jubilee Year celebration in 2025. A Jubilee Year is a Sacred Year celebrated every 25 years as a “Year of God’s favor” as written in the Book of Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1-4) and proclaimed by Jesus in Luke 4:18-19. It is a moment of grace, a “Kairos moment” of restoration and reconciliation (Leviticus 25:8-17). It is also a prophetic moment during which everyone is called to “listen to the voice of the Lord” and witness to the Gospel values of justice, reconciliation, peace, and solidarity. The theme of “Pilgrims of Hope” invites us to live out the adventurous virtues of being “pilgrims”, and not tourists in this world; to be agents and ministers of Hope, amidst the challenges and crises of our time.
- THE JUBILEE YEAR AND THE RENEWAL OF THE FACE OF OUR LAND
It is in the light of our journey towards a year of integral restoration, that, as Consecrated persons in Ghana, we reiterate our New Year Message to engage all stakeholders and all persons interested in the future of our country and that of our children in a crusade to restore our damaged environment, our polluted water bodies and our destroyed forests. Under the cry of the Psalmist “Send Forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the Earth” (Psalm 104:30), we are planning a series of activities through out the year, to cry out, as loud as we can, that the suicidal path of indiscriminate mining and environmental indifference we have taken, in our quest for instant riches, are leading us only to a collective catastrophe. We are sitting on a time bomb and it is time to say “enough is enough”! Let’s use our God given rationality to create sustainable wealth and not succumb to our human greed which only destroys and kills our conscience and humanity. “For what do you profit to gain the whole world and to lose your humanity and your soul”. We shall be launching this crusade to “renew the face of our land” next month when we shall outline in details the various activities we plan to undertake. We call on like-minded persons and groups, all the catholic faithful, the Christian and Muslim confraternities, CSOs, professional bodies, institutions, traditional and political leaders, the media and all concerned Ghanaians who want to be citizens, to join us on this pilgrimage of restoration of our land. “Send Forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of our land”.
The renewal we seek also goes to the moral fabric of our society. Today, in the face of so much deceit, peddling of blatant falsehood, “legitimatization” of corruption at all levels “as a new normal”, a growing “Ananse mentality” to trick, cheat, dupe and kill others for selfish material gains, one begins to wonder what happened to our “Ghana”, to the star of Africa, the pace setter, the champion of African emancipation and African excellence? Where is the Ghanaian personality, revered and celebrated across Africa and across the globe through our forebears like Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Busumuru Kofi Annan? Together we can write a new page in our ethical history as a people. Together we cry: “Send Forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of our land”.
- THE JUBILEE YEAR AND THE 2024 ELECTIONS
In our New Year message early this year, we underlined the fact that election 2024 is a crucial election that may make or mare Ghana and our democratic credentials. Even as we pray for peaceful, free and fair elections, we want to reiterate the calls of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference for all stakeholders to play by the rules. It is the sovereign right of the people of Ghana to decide who should govern them and no one should do anything that will thwart or distort this right of the people. We singled out for special mention violence before, during and after the elections. No one must lose his or her life in the exercise of his/her constitutional right to vote to determine who governs him/her. And every vote must count and be counted. For this, we call on the security agents, party officials, the media, the Peace Council and the Electoral commission to do all in their power and prevent any actions or inactions that have the potential of creating violence. To the citizens and to voters, any person or group of persons that is prepared to kill in the pursuit of power can neither be trusted nor be entrusted with power. The Jubilee Year is a Year of Restoration. Let your vote be your power in this journey. Together we cry out: “Send Forth Your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of our land”.
- THE ENDURING ISSUE OF LAND LITIGATION
As Consecrated persons, we are engaged in social development in the various places we live and work. For these developmental purposes, we have need of land. Nowadays, it is becoming extremely difficult for us to undertake development projects due to unending land litigations and insecurity of land tenure. The issue of multiply sales of the same land to several persons is hampering our developmental work and discouraging many from embarking on projects which otherwise will be beneficial to the community. We want to urge the authorities and the chiefs that a lasting solution to the land tenure problem be found for rapid development and investment in projects that would benefit the communities.
- THE PROPER HUMAN SEXUAL RIGHTS AND FAMILY VALUES BILL
As Consecrated persons, we add our voices to that of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and other bodies in urging the President to sign the recently passed Proper Human Sexual rights and family values bill into law. While respecting the constitutional rights of all citizens and all those who live and visit Ghana to freedom of choice and association and to their privacy, issues of public ethics and morality, especially in what touches the family, have always occupied special place in common legislation. The family, derived from the sexual partnership of male and female, is the bedrock and foundation of any society and should be protected and promoted. We therefore add our voice to the numerous calls for the government to sign the bill into law.
- A CALL TO BE RECONCILED
This season of Lent, when we are all invited to be reconciled to God, offers us a great opportunity to start anew as we journey to renew the face of our land. As we endeavor to be reconcile to God and with one another, let us also seek to be reconciled with our land, our environment and creation. In the words of the apostle Paul “as creation groans and awaits eagerly for its liberation from decay, let’s us also work towards our liberation from corruption and environmental indifference so as to experience the glorious future of our manifestation of as true sons and daughters of God” (cf. Romans 8:19-23).
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge with profound gratitude the presence and input of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, Cssp, the Bishop of Donkonkrom, Most Rev. John Asiedu, SVD and episcopal chair for Religious, and all our resource persons. We thank the management and staff of Arnold Janssen spirituality center for their hospitality and great sense of service.
May Our Mother Mary, the Model of Consecrated Life, be our companion in this season of Lent and on our journey to restore and renew the face of our land in readiness for the Jubilee celebration 2025.
Given in Bortianor Hills, at the Arnold Janssen Spirituality Center, on this day 16th of March, in the Year of Our Lord 2024.
Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Paul Saa-Dade Ennin SMA
President, Conference of Major Superiors of Religious-Ghana
