Catholics and charitable organisations in Ghana have been urged to give generously the National Catholic Television Project agenda, which is being driven by the Church in Ghana, comes to fruition.
“I implore all Catholic faithful and other benefactors to project to contribute generously towards the success of the National Catholic TV,” the Most Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Fianu, SVD, Catholic Bishop of the Ho Diocese, said during the Diocesan launch of the Lumen Christi Catholic TV in Ho.
The launch which was on the theme: “Living the Authentic Christian Social Teaching through Mass Media Evangelization” was also to solicit the help and financial contributions of Ghana’s lay faithful in order to launch the TV project successfully.
When fully operational, the Lumen Christi TV will broadcast original and authentic Catholic contents from all the 20 dioceses/vicariate in Ghana, to deepen the Church’s evangelization through mass media.
Bishop Fianu praised ardent supporters and important stakeholders, saying, “I am grateful to the team of selfless and competent individuals working on the implementation committee at various levels to ensure this project comes to fruition.”
Mr. Emmanuel Mensah, the Ho Diocesan Laity Council Chairman, recounted the many efforts and progress made by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) and the Catholic Church in Ghana in general to obtain a frequency to operate a television station in the country, following the ministry of information’s directives in July 1993 prohibiting religious bodies from owning such media.
He was optimistic, though, that the change will be made, allowing the church to have its own media platform to distribute content to the faithful.
For a long time, the Catholic Church in Ghana had been struggling to find a spectrum via which it would broadcast evangelistic content to the faithful.
Several attempts had been made over the years to realise this objective, including interim steps such as the institution of the “Catholic Digest” programme, which airs on GTV and other TV stations in the country, to ensure that Catholics have a sense of catholic material on media platforms.
The Church’s ambition of having a fully functional television is slowly becoming a reality.
During a workshop on Thursday, June 18, 2020, the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Accra, the Most Rev. John Bonaventure Kwofie, CSSp, informed attendees that the Catholic Faithful’s desire for a television station has reached the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and that steps were afoot to make it a reality.
Following that, on June 14, 2021, the Most Rev. Philip Naameh, Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale and President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, inaugurated a 7-member Executive Council of the National Catholic TV Implementation Committee at the National Catholic Secretariat.
The objective of the National Catholic TV Project is to provide intriguing television programs and information that informs, entertains, evangelizes, and educates the Catholic Community locally and the globally.
The Lumen Christi TV Project is currently being launched in various Arch/Dioceses across the country to raise funds to get the TV network established and running.
