We don’t openly criticize Akufo-Addo because we engage at ‘several levels’- Catholic Bishops Conference

The Catholic Bishops Conference that used to be very loud and aggressive under the previous Atta Mills, John Mahama administrations but has suddenly lost its voice under Akufo-Addo say they don’t criticize the present government because they engage at a high-level, MyNewsGh.com reports.

According to the Secretary General of the Conference, Very Rev Fr Lazarus Anondee “there is a lot of engagements that go on between the church, the Conference and Government on several levels…. I have heard quite a number of people saying this, I don’t think so. The only way the Church can engage government is not to be issuing statements”.

He was speaking to our sister Media outlet ABC News, criticizing Akufo-Addo too much like they did against John Mahama will make the Conference sound and look like an opposition party. He quickly added that the church has its own way of making pressing issues known to the current government.

“So it is not necessarily the case that we have to act like- I don’t want to use the term- an opposition party. It shouldn’t be the case, it should not necessarily be the case. If the situation demands that [we] say something publicly, [we] will do it but it is not everything that [we] have to jump on,” Very Rev Fr Anondee defended.

“There are several levels as I said and I think there are many levels of relationship between us and the state [gov’t] and so issues that are burning, issues that the Church needs government to know [and]take note of, I think there is a way to also make those things known,” he explained.

“I also think that since we are practicing democracy we must also allow people space to debate issues when issues come up. The only thing that sometimes is lacking is civility in the debate… But if we are civil enough [and] ready to listen to one another and debate, we will be surprised we will come up with very good ideas [and] very good solutions to some of the challenges that face us,” he noted.