By Damian Avevor
Hundreds of lay faithful thronged the M Plaza Hotel in Accra for the opening of the Second Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) last Tuesday February 23.
The Plenary Assembly which had as its theme: The New Evangelization and the Specific Challenges for the Church, Family of God in
West Africa: Reconciliation, Development, Family Life.
Over 150 Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and other Church leaders from 15 countries, namely, Benin, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Senegal and Sierra Leone and Ghana attended the opening ceremony of the Assembly which ends on Sunday February 28.
Lay Societies present in their ceremonial attire included the Papal Knights and Dames, National Council Catholic Women (NCCW), Knights of St. John International and their Ladies Auxiliary; Knights of Marshall, Christian Mothers Association and St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Society.
Among the dignitaries at the opening were former President Jerry John Rawlings, Prof. Edmund Delle, Chairman of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Mr. Bernard Monah, Chairman of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) and some Catholic Members of Parliament.
There were goodwill messages from the Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, Most Rev. Jean Marie Speich; the Pontifical Council for Culture; Congregation for the Evangelisation of the Peoples, representatives of Catholic Partner Agencies from the USA, Germany and United Kingdom.
Also messages came from the National Union of Ghana Catholic Diocesan Priests’ Associations (NUGDPA), Conference of Major Superiors of Religious, Ghana (CMSRG), National Catholic Laity Council, Ghana, Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC), and Christian Council of Ghana.
Topics discussed at the eight-day Plenary included Church-State Relations, Democracy and Good Governance, Insecurity in the Sub-region, Migration, Ecumenical and Inter-religious Relations and other matters regarding the integral development of the people of West Africa.
The Assembly also dealt with presentations, talks and workshops on the theme as well as received Reports from member Conferences and Commissions, discussions on the Statutes, bye-laws of RECOWA, the management of Catholic Universities in West Africa and the elections of new Executive Officers.
A RECOWA-CERAO Plenary brings together all Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic Church in West Africa to deliberate on matters relevant to both the Church and the West African sub region.
RECOWA-CERAO is an amalgamation of the erstwhile Association of French-speaking Episcopal Conferences in West Africa (CERAO) and the English-speaking Episcopal Conferences in West Africa (AECAWA).
In 1996, our eminent forebears recognized the need for the Church in West Africa to transcend linguistic barriers inherited from colonization in order to speak with one voice on State and Church matters and put resources together for a consolidated pastoral programme in the Sub-Region. Against this background, they began a process to form one single Episcopal Association that will bring all bishops of West Africa on one platform.
In 2007, at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, the Bishops took a firm decision to form the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA; in French, Conference Episcopale Regionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CERAO).
With this new arrangement, which transcends the linguistic barriers imposed by English, French and Portuguese, the Catholic Church has become more and more a centre of integration for West Africa just as the dream of the founding fathers of RECOWA-CERAO had envisaged.
The Presidential Council members of RECOWA-CERAO are His Eminence Theodore Adrien Cardinal Sarr of Senegal, President; Most Rev. Ignatius A. Kaigama, First Vice President; Most Rev. Jose Camnate Na Bissign from Guinea-Bissau, Second Vice President and Rev. Fr. Joseph Aka from La Cote d’Ivoire, Acting Secretary General.
