We´re ready to collaborate with gov´t - Catholic Bishops

Most Rev Joseph Osei- Bonsu, President of the Ghana Catholic Bishop’s Conference, has said the Catholic Church is ready to work in close collaboration with all stakeholders to physically and spiritually change the lives of people.

He said although the Church did not have all the technical solutions to all the problems that people in the sub region faced, it would collaborate with relevant institutions for the betterment of the people.

Most Rev Osei Bonsu said this on Tuesday during the opening of the 2nd General Assembly of Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa Conference which brought together Catholic bishops from both Anglo and Francophone countries.

He said the seven-day conference would enable the bishops to reflect on how they could work together as one united family and in concert with West African Governments, advance the issues of reconciliation, holistic development and authentic family life within the sun region.

“This will be done in the light of the Church’s New Evangelisation, which invites the Church to employ new and dynamic ways of spreading the Gospel to its people”, he said.

Mr Henry Martey Newman, Member of the Counsel of State, who also represented President Mahama, called for an end to tribal, clan and communal clashes.

“Many parts of Africa and the world at large have countless heart-rending tales to tell of shattered development plans and broken homes, all because citizens failed to forgive and forget when it mattered most”, he said.

He pledged Government’s readiness to look up to the Church for inspiration, leadership by example, as well as prayer support.

He urged Christians to be the ‘salt of the world’ as preached by Christ to serve as role models for the rest of the world

Theodore Adrien Cardinal Sarr, President of Catholic Bishops for West Africa, said the decision to bring together both Anglophone and Francophone Episcopal Conference in West Africa was born in 1996 to help the Conference transcend linguistic barriers inherited from clolonisation.

He said the decision was also help the conference speak with one voice on State and Church matters and put resources together for the consolidated pastoral programme in the Sub-Region.

“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 the Conference’, he said.

The conference which brought together representatives from all the 16 countries in West Africa was under the theme: “The New Evangelisation and Specific Challenges for the Church, Family of God in West Africa”.