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His Eminence Ivan Cardinal Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, recently visited the offices of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the National Catholic Secretariat (NCS) both in Accra where he interacted with Management and Staff.
The visit was part of an 11-day programme lined up for him as the Special Envoy of Pope Benedict XVI to the Centenary celebration of the Evangelisation of the North.
He was welcomed to SECAM by Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, its Treasurer and Vice President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Rev. Fr. Mawulano Martinho, Priest in-Charge of Justice and Peace and HIV/AIDS at the SECAM and Mr. Benedict Assorow, Director of Communications of SECAM.
At SECAM, he asked the Staff to champion good governance, peace and justice in Africa.
Cardinal Dias pointed out that Africa needed Statesmen and not simply politicians because politicians were often attached to political parties for their selfish interests.
Statesmen on the other hand, he explained, were always concerned about the needs and welfare of the people.
At the NCS, he was met by Rev. Msgr. Seth Osei-Agyemang, Secretary General, and all the Executive Secretaries of the various Departments as well as the Managing Editor of The Standard, Mr. Isaac Fritz Andoh.
Cardinal Dias urged the Staff to be the voice of the voiceless, asking them to pray always for the Holy Father.
He said everything must be done to ensure that the Holy Eucharist is not treated like a 'piece of cake' in an apparent reference to a photograph published recently in The Standard in which a bride was administering Holy Communion to the groom.
Msgr. Osei-Agyemang, pledged the staff’s determination to work dedicatedly to support the Holy Father.
The Cardinal was accompanied by Most Rev. George Kocherry, Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana and Archbishop Palmer-Buckle
Cardinal Dias also visited the St. Paul’s Philosophy Seminary at Sowutuom, Accra and urged the students to be honest and devoted as future priests.
He donated ¢2 million to the Seminary.
Welcoming the Cardinal and his entourage, Very Rev. Fr. Raphael Osei Soadwah, the Rector of the Seminary, said it had 10 Formators, 175 Seminarians and 25 ancillary Staff.
Fr. Soadwah said there were 112 prospective applicants, but only about 60 of them would be admitted next academic year because of limited facilities.
He thanked the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples for the various support the Seminary had received from it and called for more support for the completion of the Spiritual Year Hall started some ten years ago.
By Vincent Mensah & Steve Kakrabah-Quarshie
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