Plans Underway to Gather 150 Church Leaders from West Africa to Discuss Challenges of New Evangelization

CANAA || By Father Don Bosco Onyalla, Nairobi || 18 February 2016

Plans are underway to bring together some 150 Catholic Church leaders from 16 countries of West Africa for their Plenary Assembly whose theme is “The New Evangelization and its specific challenges for the Church, Family of God in West Africa: Reconciliation, Development, and Family Life.”

The meeting is scheduled to take place next week in Ghana’s capital, Accra, from February 22 to 29, 2016, assembling Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and other leaders and representatives of Church institutions under the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA).

According to a communique sent to CANAA from the Acting Secretary General of RECOWA, Father Joseph Aka, Ghana’s President, John Mahama, is expected to deliver the keynote address at the opening of the plenary assembly.

The gathering will have talks and presentation of reports from RECOWA member conferences and commissions as well as discussions on the legal documentations of the regional conference.

The Church leaders will deliberate on the challenges that face the mission of evangelization in view of protecting the family, described as “the nucleus of society.”

Below is the press release by the Acting Secretary General of RECOWA, Father Joseph Aka.

PRESS RELEASE                                                                           February 17, 2016

Ghana hosts 150 Bishops from West Africa in Accra next Week.

The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference will be hosting one hundred and fifty Catholic Bishops from all the 16 countries of West Africa in Accra next week for their Second Plenary Assembly.

The bishops who form the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa   (RECOWA) will be meeting from February 22 to 29, 2016 on the theme: The New Evangelisation and its specific challenges for the Church, Family of God in West Africa: Reconciliation, Development, and Family Life.

The participants comprise Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and other Church leaders. Apart from topics pertaining to the main theme the Plenary Assembly will also look at issues of 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.

In a world where some nations, through lobbyists are making laws that are destroying the family, the bishops of West Africa want to bring to the fore that the destruction of the nucleus of society or to tear the family or deny what it is, inevitably undermines the very fabric of society and corrupts its foundations.

RECOWA is a merger of the then Conférence Episcopale Régionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (CERAO) formed in 1963 that brought together French and Portuguese-speaking West African Catholic bishops, and the Association of Episcopal Conferences of Anglophone West Africa (AECAWA) formed in 1972 by the English-speaking West African Catholic bishops.

The First Plenary Assembly of RECOWA-CERAO was held in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, in January 2012.

During this Assembly there will be goodwill messages from a representative of Pope Francis and representatives of Catholic Partner Agencies from the US, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency, John DRAMANI MAHAMA will give the Keynote Speech during the opening ceremony of the Assembly.

The first part of the Assembly will deal with presentations/talks and workshops on the theme of the Assembly. The second part which is the business session will include the presentation of reports from member Conferences and Commissions; discussions on the Statutes, bye-laws of RECOWA; the management of Catholic Universities in West Africa and the election of new Executive Officers.

The current Presidential Council members of RECOWA-CERAO are His Eminence Théodore Adrien Cardinal SARR of Senegal, President; Most Rev. Ignatius A. KAIGAMA from Nigeria, First Vice-President; and Most Rev. Jose Camnate NA BISSIGN from Guinea-Bissau as Second Vice-President.

Rev. Fr. Joseph AKA from Ivory Coast is serving as Acting Secretary General of the Association.

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Issued by the Acting Secretary General of RECOWA- CERAO, Rev. Fr. Joseph Aka, through the Communications Office of the National Catholic Secretariat, Accra, Ghana.

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RECOWA= Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa.

CERAO=Conférence Episcopale Régionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest.