From Isaac Asare, GBC URA Radio, Bolgatanga
COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE 2015 PLENARY
ASSEMBLY OF THE GHANA CATHOLIC
BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE HELD AT
BOLGATANGA, UPPER EAST REGION, FROM 6TH TO 14TH NOVEMBER, 2015 ON
THE THEME:
“THE LAITY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE
NEW EVANGELISATION”
Greetings
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
“May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of
the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:13).
Preamble
We, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, have held our Plenary Assembly in
Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, also known as the “Sunshine” Region of
Ghana, from November 6–14, 2015 under the theme “The Laity in the Context of
the New Evangelization” and we wish to share with you some of our reflections
on the theme. But first, let us give thanks to God for His abundant graces and
blessings upon our land and our Church. We recall with grateful hearts the
recent successful Synod of Bishops in Rome on the Vocation and Mission of the
Family in the Church and the Contemporary World and the historic two-day
Pro-Life Conference in Accra which highlighted the need to defend and promote
the sanctity and dignity of life at all times.
Let us praise God for these blessings on the Church and the fact that our
country Ghana, even in the midst of some significant challenges, continues to
enjoy peace, stability and good will among nations. We therefore call on all
Catholics and citizens of our nation to join us to thank God and beseech His
blessings for the Church and our nation especially in these times when we begin
preparations for our presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
Vocation and Mission of the Laity in the
New Evangelisation
Constituting
more than 98% of the Church’s population, the Laity are “All the faithful
except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state
sanctioned by the Church” (Lumen Gentium (LG) 31, Christifideles Laici (CL) 9).
"The
Church is not truly established and does not fully live, nor is it a perfect
sign of Christ, unless there is a genuine laity existing and working alongside
the hierarchy" (Ad Gentes (AG) 21). That is why the Laity should show
active enthusiasm and support for the Bishops’ teachings, especially on
temporal matters which are their proper domain.
The vocation of the Lay Faithful in the New Evangelisation is to give a
coherent and authentic Christian testimony in the world. It includes the
special role of “... so illuminating and ordering all temporal things that they
grow in accordance with Christ and for the glory of the Creator and Redeemer”
(LG 32). Grounded in their baptism and confirmation and in their charisms, the
Laity are the ones who “make the Church present and active in those places and
circumstances where it is only through them that the Church can be the salt of
the earth” (LG 33).
Since
they live in the midst of the world and its concerns, the Laity engage in
temporal and secular affairs to bring the Gospel into the family, work,
profession, trade and commerce, politics, government, mass media, science,
culture, national and international relations, etc. It was to raise this
awareness, among other reasons, that we organised the 2nd National Pastoral
Congress in Sunyani in 2014. We urge all Catholics to study the recommendations
and Guidelines of the Congress and put them into practice.
One apostolate that is the prerogative of the Lay Faithful is the Family. They
are called to witness to the sanctity of family life and to give a living
witness to marriage and family life in the contemporary world. This
irreplaceable role of parents in the family cannot be overemphasised because
the Christian home constitutes the first school of virtue. It is in this
respect that the Christian family becomes the domestic Church.
The Laity and the Year of Mercy
Our Holy
Father, Pope Francis, has declared December 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016 as the
Year of Mercy. The Church in Ghana will climax this year on October 16, 2016
during the annual plenary of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference to be held
in Tamale. In this Extraordinary Jubilee Year, we invite all our Lay Faithful
to reflect on the mercy of God and endeavour to make the Church a credible sign
of mercy as “Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life” (Misericordiae
Vultus (MV) 10).
God
reveals His love to the men and women of the world through the Church and so it
is the Church’s primary task “to introduce everyone to the great mystery of
God’s mercy.” It is the task of our Laity as well as the Priests and Religious
to use this Year of Mercy to forgive all wrongs and injuries at all levels of
the Church and society. Societies must collaborate with one another, families
and friends must come together in bonds of charity and peace. We strongly urge
all Priests to fix days and times during the week to give the Laity an
opportunity to avail themselves of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Challenges and Prospects of Laity Formation Today
As a Church, we do not fail to recognise that many Catholics are today
inadequately instructed in the faith. It seems that the parish and our
institutions are unable to do enough, generally speaking, to promote the faith,
theological formation and the deepening of the spirituality of the Laity. Many
of the Laity fail to make themselves available for these instructions in their
respective parishes and institutions where these formation programmes are
available. And yet, for the Laity to play their proper roles in the New
Evangelization, only attending Holy Mass and receiving the other sacraments are
not enough. In addition to these necessities, they need a significant
spiritual and doctrinal formation and a better understanding of the Church’s
Social Teachings. There is the urgent need, therefore, on the part of both the
Laity and the Clergy as well as all teachers of the faith to address themselves
to a well-organised formation and education programme to meet the needs,
especially, of the Lay Faithful. To fulfil this duty the Clergy, Pastoral and
Laity Councils and the Lay Associations need to come together to budget for and
to raise the funds for all formation programmes and activities of the Laity in
all our communities.
Adequate Christian formation of the
Ghanaian Laity
Parishes and outstations must have a systematic formation programme for Lay
formation. We strongly encourage all parishes to intensify the teaching of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church. Parishes should work with our
Pastoral-Catechetical centres and Catholic Educational Institutions to
continually find new ways and new methods of deepening the biblical, doctrinal
and catechetical knowledge of the Laity. The respective centres of formation
should work with the Laity Councils and Parishes to help the Laity develop love
for Sacred Scripture, Church doctrine, Catholic Social Teachings and the
Catechism of the Church.
Dioceses,
parishes, lay associations need also to reinvigorate biblical apostolate among
the Faithful. Parishes must be made attractive and have recreational
facilities for children and youth as well as qualified personnel for faith
formation of the youth. Through daily participation in the Eucharist, and
parish life, the Laity take on the apostolate of spreading the Gospel which
becomes personal, continual and incisive.
Parish Priests and their Assistants have an important role to support and
facilitate the formation of the Laity for the New Evangelization and should
show special interest in this apostolate. They should help form Laity who have
the missionary zeal to introduce innovative ideas for Lay programmes and
implementation.
Lay Associations and Laity
Formation
The
Catholic Church recognises and approves associations of the Lay Faithful. These
societies and associations constitute an important element in the life and
mission of the Church. They are expected to strive to promote a more perfect
life among members, foster public worship, and learn Christian doctrine. They
should continue to animate the temporal order with the Christian spirit. We
call on all Lay Associations to dedicate a significant amount of time of
meetings to biblical, doctrinal and catechetical formation of their
members. Further, societies in the Church should note that, we condemn
the commercialisation of religion in no uncertain terms. We therefore urge them
and all Catholic Faithful to guard against using any society in the Church for
personal financial gains or giving in to the “gospel of prosperity” without the
cross.
The Laity and Current Socio-Economic
Situation in Ghana
In
discussing the role of the laity in the Church’s New Evangelisation, we cannot
fail to address ourselves to the numerous socio-economic challenges that
confront present-day Ghana. These challenges and situations are the context for
evangelization by the Laity in the temporal world in the spirit of Christ. It
is the unique role of the laity to direct temporal affairs according to God’s
will; being the leaven in the world, manifesting Christ to all in unity with
their Priests and Bishops; engaged in their special vocation to make the Church
present in the world; transforming the Church to become the “salt of the
earth... and light of the world” (Cf. Mt 5:13,14); enjoying a principal role in
secular society to spread the spirit of Christ and infuse culture and human
works with moral value.
The Laity and Urbanisation
The
increasing urbanization of Ghana has brought in its wake the problem of
“streetism”. In effect, children who should be in the classrooms are
found loitering and/or hawking on the streets of our towns and cities. With
increased urbanisation, the practice of prostitution is on the ascendancy while
the HIV/AIDS pandemic is still rampant in some parts of the country,
particularly, in cities. There are cases of armed robbery attacks in our
cities. Even though statistics show that such cases have gone down, we think
that there is still more room for improvement in this area. The problems
relating to urbanisation also include the fact that urban poverty has increased
over the last few years compared with rural poverty. These problems relating to
urbanisation may seem daunting but we are guided by faith and hope that united
as one people we can surely surmount these formidable challenges. A
section Laity is in positions where they can improve the situation. These are
called to see such duties as a charge from God.
The Laity and Unemployment
In Ghana
today, unemployment constitutes perhaps the biggest social issue confronting
our country, a situation which has been worsened by the turning out of many
unskilled graduates from our schools. The secondary and tertiary education has
not been able to turn out the relevant middle level skilled human resources
needed for the industrialization of the country even as large numbers of
people, including school drop-outs, continue to throng our cities for
non-existing jobs, ending up as head porters or “Kayaye” and “shoe-shine boys
and girls”. This army of unemployed youth often engages in undesirable immoral
behaviours like prostitution and armed robbery. To stem this tide of
affairs, we recommend that the State turn some of the community secondary
schools currently under construction into Community Vocational and Technical
schools and continue to equip and resource the existing Vocational and Technical
Institutes in the country. Parents Guardians should also encourage their wards
to enrol in these schools.
While the
idea of Technical Universities is good, care must be taken not to rush the
proposal through without doing the necessary due diligence to ensure that the
aim of the exercise will be achieved. Perhaps, the proposed Long-Term
Development plan is a great opportunity to get this policy and programme
articulation right.
The Laity
who are policy makers on education delivery are called upon to work with their
co-workers to make Christ’s love felt here.
The Laity and Poverty
Poverty
is a direct consequence of unemployment. Every Ghanaian must be alarmed at the
abject poverty that stares at us everywhere in the cities, towns and villages.
We regret to say that various poverty-reduction interventions such as the
Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), Youth Enterprise Support (YES)
and the like, though commendable, have not yielded the desired results. It is
our strong conviction that policies and strategies aimed at reducing poverty
must be pragmatic, realistic and home-grown. Over-reliance on donor-driven or
directed programmes must be cut to the barest minimum. The resolve of the
global community to bring extreme poverty to an end must challenge Ghana to
work hard to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at an earlier
timeline before 2030. We urge our Laity to educate themselves and be abreast of
the contents of the bail-out package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
All the Laity who are employers and business men and women are called by Jesus
to help the poor and the needy as much as they can.
The Laity and National Health
Delivery
We
acknowledge that some attempts have been made to improve the health care
delivery system in Ghana with the establishment of some Community-Based Health
Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and the building of more health care
infrastructure in some parts of the country.
We are,
however, concerned about the long delays in the payment of health insurance
claims to health care facilities, a situation which is gradually leading to the
collapse of many of such facilities. We call for an immediate and urgent review
of the National Health Insurance Scheme not only to save it from imminent
collapse but to position it to serve its intended purpose because we think that
this health policy is far better than the cash and carry system of the past.
We also
note with sadness and worry the alarming rate of strike actions and lock-outs
by health care givers including doctors, nurses and paramedics, and encourage
policy makers to do all they can to resolve these issues once and for all.
The key to most of these issues, we believe,
is the prompt payment of salaries and the formalisation of the Conditions of
Service for Health Workers. “I was sick and you visited me” (Mt 25:36) is
Jesus’ invitation to all the Laity to do what is necessary to save the National
Health Insurance Scheme.
The Laity and Care of the
Environment
Closely
linked to the health of the nation is the issue of the care of the environment.
Time and again, we have spoken about the need to take good care of the
environment on which we depend. We regret to note once again the persistent
pollution of our water bodies, the littering of plastic waste everywhere, the
careless felling of trees in our forests and savannah area and the rampant
illegal mining (galamsey) operations in our towns and villages. We call on our
Laity and indeed all Ghanaians to rise up against this indiscriminate
destruction of our environment and water bodies. The authorities charged with
protecting our natural resources should be up and doing.
We
welcome the idea of the National Sanitation Day on every first Saturday of the
month as laudable and commendable and appeal to all Catholics and all Ghanaians
to actively participate in this exercise as a Christian duty and a civic
responsibility. We urge all Ghanaians to acquire the habit, not only to clean
up our surroundings but most importantly let us all learn how not to make our
environment dirty in the first place.
We also
strongly recommend the recent encyclical of Pope Francis on the care of
creation called “Laudato Si’ ” to our Catholic faithful and all Ghanaians
because it provides a good resource for all, but most especially, policy makers
on the care of our environment. We can certainly do with more education on the
care of the environment.
All the
Laity who are charged with the protection of the environment should know that
the environment is God’s handiwork. To protect it is being faithful to God.
The Laity, Bribery and Corruption
The twin
evils of bribery and corruption have now overwhelmed our Ghanaian society and
the recent exposure of alleged judicial corruption by Mr.
Anas
Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye PI team has left all of us in no doubt that
every fabric of our Ghanaian society today is pervasively corrupt. While we
commend Anas and his team for this exposure, we reiterate our call for justice
to be done in this and all other cases and we do express our confidence in the
Chief Justice and the Judicial Council to bring this matter to a fitting
conclusion and to reform our judiciary. Once again, we appeal to all Religious
Bodies, to our Government, all the people of Ghana and all who dwell in our
land to reflect soberly and sincerely on the canker of bribery and corruption
and to accept that this is a weakness that is destroying Ghana and repent accordingly.
We appeal
to all Catholics, other Christians and all who call on the name of God to bear
good witness to their faith by resisting bribery and corruption knowing that
there is reward for honesty and integrity. We urge all Ghanaians to join us to
pray the Prayer Against Bribery and Corruption daily. While we appeal to all
Ghanaians to refuse to give or take bribes, we also believe that all those who
engage in acts of bribery and corruption must be made to face the consequences
of their actions.
The Laity, Politics and Elections
in Ghana
We bemoan
the sudden surge in election-related violence in our body politic and call on
all political leaders, activists and supporters to refrain from such
misconduct. Inter-party and intra-party violence, particularly those witnessed
in some parties, are threatening Ghana’s peace and democracy. These unfortunate
happenings do not reflect the peaceful and non-violent nature of Ghanaians.
We urge
politicians to beware of their pronouncements and activities. We believe
in the ability of the security agencies to deal swiftly with all reported cases
without fear or favour. In the run-up to the 2016 Elections, care must be taken
not to allow political activities to degenerate into chaos and violence.
We
consider chieftaincy as a noble legacy of our traditions and cultures and
expect our chiefs to be fathers to all their subjects, irrespective of the
latter’s political affiliations, religious beliefs and economic standing.
Chiefs who feel that their vocation lies in active politics can always give up
their official traditional position to do partisan politics as the Constitution
of Ghana demands.
That is
why we condemn in no uncertain terms the involvement of some chiefs in partisan
politics and call on them to respect the laws of the land and refrain from such
acts.
We also
condemn the phenomenon of vote-buying and occultism creeping into our national
politics, where voters are induced to swear to vote in a particular way, and
call on politicians and the Ghanaian electorate to desist from such acts.
On the
Voters’ Register and the call for its replacement or revision, we wish to
commend the Electoral Commission (EC) for some of the steps it has taken so far
to involve all major stakeholders in finding an acceptable solution to the
issue. We reiterate our call that all who are involved in this process must be
open, honest and truthful in their approach to this exercise. At the same time,
the EC must be given the chance and the space to handle the issue
dispassionately and objectively in the best interest of the nation.
According
to our electoral laws, minors and foreigners should not register for electoral
purposes in Ghana. We also propose that in the name of transparency the
Electoral Commission display the current voters’ register on its website so
that all Ghanaians can check the list of voters and know where their names are
located.
On the
way forward for a credible voters’ register for future elections, we are of the
view that the National Identification Authority (NIA) must be resourced to
deliver on its mandate to register all persons, Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians,
living in the country and to compile a reliable database which can be used by
the Electoral Commission to compile a credible Voters’ Register.
At the
same time, the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) must be
adequately resourced with personnel and logistics to educate the citizenry on
the rights and requirements of voters. We cannot repeat enough our call for an
early release of the programme for the upcoming elections which must be the
product of the consultations of all stakeholders including the political
parties themselves.
The Laity and Ghana’s Education
We reiterate our earlier unchanging position that it is the inalienable right
of parents and guardians to choose schools for their wards. We reaffirm our
conviction that it is not the right of a computer, programmed by a
prone-to-corruption human being, to choose schools for our students. This is
why we continue to appeal to Government to abolish the Computerised School
Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) and replace it with a more workable and
transparent version. We will come out with details of the new proposal soon.
Unit schools have been pivotal in
quality education delivery in Ghana. However, successive policies in
educational reforms in recent times have systematically sidelined the
Educational Units making them ineffective. Because of this the Ghana Catholic
Bishops Conference and other Religious Bodies have for many years engaged the
State to come out with clear policies with regard to the Partnership Agreement
which has always existed between the Religious Bodies and the State in
Education delivery. That is why we call on Government to be transparent in the
on-going policy considerations on education reforms. We also urge that action
be expedited on the formalization of the Partnership Agreement on Education,
submitted by the Religious and other Bodies whose schools are in the public
system. We call on the Laity to see the benefits of the Unit Schools and to
commit themselves to their effective management as the contribution of
Religious Bodies towards quality education delivery in Ghana.
The Laity and Public Financial
Management
We are
seriously concerned about reports of huge budget over-runs by some sectors,
increasing public debt, huge arrears of statutory payments by Government, among
many other issues, of poor public financial management.
We know
that some of these are the result of the absence of a prioritised national
development plan which should inform national budget allocations. Others may
stem from weaknesses in public sector financial management systems. We hope
that the on-going comprehensive public sector reforms will take these into
consideration for good financial governance. We pray that national budgets will
be instruments for social protection, the elimination of extreme poverty and
the promotion of citizens' well-being.
Conclusion
The
history of Catholic evangelization is replete with the missionary zeal of lay
people especially teacher-catechists who collaborated with the early
missionaries in planting the Catholic faith, in most of the dioceses in Ghana.
In fact, most parishes in Ghana were originally started by Lay People using
their homes as centres of prayers. These Lay Catechists would travel many
miles with missionary priests on foot as interpreters and teachers of the faith
to surrounding villages to plant churches.
The Laity
in the era of the New Evangelization need to rekindle this missionary zeal in
the Church, in political and economic governance, in the legal and medical
professions etc. In this way the Laity permeate all the areas where they have
been sent by Christ with the Christian spirit of love, justice and peace.
As you Laity take up their proper role in Church and society we wish to
encourage you with the words of Cardinal St. Henry Newmann “We want a laity,
not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men and women who know their
religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they
hold, and what they do not, who know their creed so well, that they can give an
account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. We want an
intelligent, well-instructed laity...” (Cardinal Newman, 1851).
Further, St Paul reminds us Priests, Religious and the Laity “You are the
people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then you must put on
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Be helpful to one
another, forgive one another ... as God has forgiven you” (Col. 3:12-13).
God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong! Thank you.
MOST REV. JOSEPH OSEI-BONSU
BISHOP OF KONONGO-MAMPONG &
PRESIDENT, GHANA CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE
