Bishop Richard Kuuia- Baawobr of Wa, Ghana, who is to be made a Cardinal later in August has been elected as Head of the ‘Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar’ (SECAM).

This is contained in a statement made available by Fr. Mike Umoh, Director,  Social Communications,Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, on Thursday in  Abuja.

Umoh said the 63-year-old Ghanaian Bishop, who will travel to Rome to receive a ‘red hat’ on August 27, has said that he sees his new mission as a cardinal as “an invitation to serve.

Kuuia-Baawobr has led the Diocese of Wa, in North-West Ghana since 2016.

He is known locally for his charity and care for people with mental disabilities in a country where the stigmatisation of mental illness is still high.

Six years ago, he launched a Diocesan Street Ministry which brings together parish volunteers and health care professionals.

It is aimed at providing care and medical assistance for people with mental disabilities who have been abandoned by their families.

“I always think of the two sons of Zebedee who are struggling for the seats, one on the left and one on the right.

“At that moment, Jesus reminds them that their greatness is in service, that he has come to serve,” he said.

The Bishop was elected president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), at the end of the African bishops’ plenary assembly in Accra, Ghana.

The Bishops gathered at the 19th Plenary Assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar in Accra Courtesy of SECAM.

Before he became Bishop of Wa, Kuuia- Baawobr was the first African to serve as the Superior-General of the Missionaries of Africa, commonly called the “White Fathers” for their distinctive white cassocks.

His vocation as a Missionary of Africa provided him ministry experiences in different regions in Africa.

After his ordination to the priesthood in 1987,  Baawobr served in a Parish in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He later moved to Kahangala, Tanzania to take on the role of formator for the order after finishing a licentiate in Sacred Scripture and a doctorate in Biblical Theology at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.

Baawobr also spent time in France, studying Ignatian spirituality at Le Chatelard in Lyon and working for five years as the director of the missionary order’s formation house in Toulouse.

While acting as the superior-general of the White Fathers from 2010 to 2016, he was named vice grand chancellor of the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

Pope Francis later appointed him as a member and Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

Born in Tom-Zendagangn in the Wa diocese, he studied at a village school and the St. Francis Xavier Minor St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary before he entered the diocesan seminary in 1979 at the age of 20.

This was after discerning his vocation with the Missionaries of Africa.

He studied for his novitiate in Fribourg, Switzerland and then completed his theological studies at the Missionary Institute, London.

He was professed as a member of the society of apostolic life in 1986.

He will be made a cardinal along with 20 others in a consistory in Rome on August 27.

He said that at first,  he did not believe that Pope Francis had named him a cardinal until he received a call from the nuncio. “

“From the surprise, I came to accept it as an invitation to serve,” the Bishop said.

“As a priest, that is my first calling, to serve God, to serve his people,” the man of God said.

Umoh sated that a delegation from the diocese of Wa will accompany the Bishop to Rome for the August consistory.

He will become one of two new cardinals from Africa, along with Bishop Peter Ebere- Okpaleke of Ekwulobia, Nigeria.

However, he said that it has been challenging getting visas for everyone who would like to come with him to Rome.

The Bishop said that he wants to make the trip “an occasion to pray and to grow in the faith,” for the Ghana delegation with pilgrimages to Basilicas in Rome .

“Possibly a pilgrimage to assist so that we pray for peace for ourselves and for our families and for the nation.

“It comes down very strongly that we are not alone in this mission.

“And the Holy Father is inviting us to share, to collaborate with him.

“I think from there also I draw the message that wherever we are, if people are needing our collaboration.

”This is in order to attain a specific goal, we should offer that with joy and humility and simplicity,” he said.(NAN)