It appears the love of money has deafened some of our faithful to the message of Christ and blinded them to the needs of the poor who are affected by their activities, says the President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Most Rev. Philip Naameh.
In a keynote address at the opening of the 2022 Plenary Assembly of the Conference at Donkorkrom on November 7, he said “looking at all these situations we find ourselves in and the fact that some of the people involved are members of our Church, is enough to get us worried.”
“Amid all these, our churches are full on Sundays,” he lamented.
As Pope Benedict and also Pope Francis have indicated, the Catholic faith is no longer seen in the lives of some of our faithful people of God.
This, he said, was due to lack of personal faith and conviction which is a consequence of the lack of encounter with Jesus Christ. “Consequently, there is a kind of lack of commitment and a lackadaisical attitude towards the mission of the Church by some members.”
According to Archbishop Naameh, “All these may seem to us that our Catholic faith is not felt in the social, economic, and political life in our country as it should.”
“There is therefore the need for us to work hard with a new passion and fervour toward encouraging personal experience of Christ through a personal encounter with Him in His Word.”
According to him, he brought these issues up to underscore the point that there is serious dichotomy between the life of some members and the Gospel message for which they are not able to witness.
The situation in Ghana today, he stated presents “a clear sign of a society that is gradually becoming indifferent towards the Gospel of Christ. It is a new challenge to us as a Church. What we need in all these is new strategy with renewed passion to proclaim Christ to people.”
He suggested the need to intensify catechesis and formation programmes of the faithful to focus on helping the individual to live their Christian faith through a personal encounter with Christ. “Where there is a deep and personal encounter with Christ, the individual will be able to hold firm to his or her faith even in difficult times and be able to propose Christ to others,” he added.
