From Nana Osei Kyeretwie
Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, the Bishop of Sunyani has appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to grant the Catholic University College of Ghana (CUCG) at Fiapre a Presidential Charter for the institution to become a fully-fledged autonomous university.
The Bishop stated that there has been a wonderful collaboration between the Church, the Sunyani Diocese and the Brong-Ahafo Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) over the years, implying that there is a healthy relationship between the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) and the government.
He indicated that out of that bond as partners in development, and working through diverse trajectories to champion the cause of national progress through human resource training and development as well as the provision of other socio-economic services, the CUCG was established and inaugurated in 2003.
Bishop Gyamfi made the appeal recently when he welcomed President Akufo-Addo and his entourage who had come to worship with the congregation at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church at Nkwabeng, a suburb of Sunyani, when the Church was marking its 20th Anniversary.
President Akufo-Addo was in the Brong-Ahafo Region on a three-day working visit and his presence at the Church service was to commence the third leg of the tour which ended later in the day with a sod-cutting ceremony for commencement of work on the construction of an administrative block of the Sunyani West District Assembly at Odumase.
Bishop Gyamfi emphasised that the CUCG came into being with the unflinching support of the RCC, saying that President Kufuor cut the sod for building construction works to begin at its present location at Fiapre in the Sunyani West District.
The CUCG, with its high calibre of academic staff is affiliated to the Universities of Ghana and Cape Coast and has been offering quality training and holistic education to past and present students for the past 15 years of its existence.
The Bishop thus stressed that the University had now come of age and matured enough to manage its own academic affairs, hence it is time for it to be granted a Presidential Charter to enable it to move into the next level to translate the vision and mission of its establishment to serving the nation better.
In a homily, Bishop Gyamfi exhorted Christians to use the gospel message of love to pull down gender, tribal, religious and political barriers in the country and use the diversity to serve the Church and the nation.
He stated that there is the need for Ghanaians to be transformed by the Holy Spirit to speak the language that unites all members of the family, people at workplaces and wherever one finds oneself.
Bishop Gyamfi however, noted that there could not be unity in the society without forgiveness”, exhorting that “to achieve unity amongst us, the Holy Spirit gave us the gift of forgiveness” which is epitomised in Jesus’ breathing on His 11 apostles that “receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven…”
The Bishop explained that “forgiveness means wiping the slate clean, starting over”, adding that “where this is impossible, there can be no unity, but only an ever-lengthening tale of injury, resentment, reprisal and escalating hatred”.
President Akufo-Addo later in a short address called for unity among Ghanaians to stimulate holistic national development. The President gave the Church GH¢20,000 towards the funding of on-going infrastructural development projects as part of its 20 years Anniversary celebration.
In a show of appreciation for the President’s visit to the Parish, Mr. Albert Amankwaah, President of the Church’s Pastoral Council, presented a portrait photograph of President Akufo-Addo in a Kente cloth to him.
The Holy Spirit Parish was established in 1998 through the pastoral guidance of Bishop James Kwadwo Owusu of Blessed memory, the pioneer and then Chief Shepherd of the Diocese.
