The Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend John Bonaventure Kwofie, has reaffirmed the Catholic Church in Ghana’s position on gay marriage, stressing that “Marriage remains a union between man and woman, and not man and man or woman and woman”.
He explained that recent brouhaha over Pope Francis’s call for the church to offer blessings to all who attended mass, including married persons, whether it was man and woman marriage or gay marriage, was due to the lack of understanding of the issue.
“The Declaration makes a distinction between liturgical (sacramental) blessings and pastoral blessings which may be given to persons who desire God’s loving graces in their lives. The Declaration says that these pastoral blessings “are meant for everyone; no one is to be excluded from them,” he emphasised.
Rev. Kwofie, who was delivering the homily at a mass to climax the 75th anniversary celebration of the Holy Family Catholic Church at Mataheko in Accra yesterday, explained that there was indeed a grave difference between a sacramental blessing and that of pastoral blessings.
“A brief prayer preceding this spontaneous blessing, an ordained minister could ask that individuals have peace, health, a spirit of patience, dialogue, and mutual assistance—but also God’s light and strength to be able to fulfil his will completely,” he added.
He said the institution of marriage could not be defied in anyway and the church would not bless marriage between two persons of same sex even though the priest could pray for forgiveness for persons who were engaged in such sinful act.
The Holy Family Parish was established in 1948 as an out-station of the Sacred Heart Parish then located at Derby Avenue, Accra
It was created as a result of the growth in population in the central parts of Accra and was subsequently relocated to cater for the needs of some residents at the outskirts of central Accra.
The out-station was to serve Catholic migrant workers from Northern Ghana and Togo who had mainly settled at Abossey Okai Town Council.
The migrant settlers used to go all the way to Sacred Heart Parish for Mass and other church activities, therefore the idea of creating an out-station nearby to take care of their spiritual needs was welcoming to them.
Mr Raphael Kponton was very instrumental in this initiative as he facilitated the first Holy Mass in his residence at Abossey Okai.
He subsequently became the first elder or chairman of the pastoral council and was joined by other enthusiastic catholic faithful to deliberate on the way forward for the new church.
In the same year, it became necessary for a permanent site to be established for the church, and so the Ga Manye, Dey Kotey, was approached and a piece of land was negotiated for and purchased at GBP800.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
