Bishop KuuiaBaawobr Elected 1st Ghanaian SECAM President

The Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), has elected His Eminence Cardinal Richard KuuiaBaawobr, to serve as its president.

His Eminence Cardinal KuuiaBaawobr, who serves as the Bishop of Ghana’s Catholic Diocese of Wa in the Upper West region, was named Cardinal on May 29, 2022, and was elected last Saturday, July 30, the eve of the Eucharistic celebration to mark the conclusion of the 19th Plenary Assembly of SECAM in Ghana’s capital city of Accra.

He becomes the first Ghanaian to be elected to the position of high office, and now serves as the head of the Catholic Church in Madagascar and Africa.

Bishop Baawobr, 63, takes over from Philippe Cardinal Ouedraogo, who has led SECAM since July 2019.

He described his election as SECAM President as a total surprise to him, since it was his first time of participating at the meeting.

“I was surprised that they elected me because this is my first time participating at a SECAM meeting. At the same time, I am grateful that they have elected me. I see it as trust that they are showing in me … for now, I cannot say these are my priorities,” he told Vatican News.

“It is important that we first listen to the regional Episcopal Conferences, and it is good that our SECAM standing committee is comprised of regional conferences. I also find that the theme we discussed at this Plenary, Ownership of SECAM; Security and Migration in Africa and the Islands, is a good starting point”.

Asked by Vatican News what all these new appointments mean to him personally, Bishop Baawobr said the bottom line was that they are all a call to serve.

“What all this means for me as Cardinal-elect and President of SECAM, I think, is that both are a call to serve God through my brothers and sisters and by listening to them,” said the Ghanaian cardinal.

Also elected with Bishop Baawobr were two vice presidents, Cardinal Fridolin AmbongoBesungu of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Bishop Lucio AndriceMuandula of the Diocese of Xai-Xai, Mozambique.

The Ghanaian Bishop, ordained a Priest in July 1987 is among 21 new Cardinals to be created in the next Consistory scheduled for August 27.

Bishop Richard KuuiaBaawobr was born on June 21, 1959 in Tom-Zendagangn, Diocese of Wa, and became a bishop in 2016. He was a student at Nandom Secondary School and St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary.

Following his studies in philosophy, he enrolled in the St. Victor Diocesan Major Seminary in Tamale in 1979. He moved to the Society of Missionaries of Africa in 1981 to pursue his priestly studies there. He spent the years 1981 and 1982 in Fribourg, Switzerland for his Novitiate.

He then completed his theology studies at the Missionary Institute London from 1982 to 1987. (MIL). He made his religious vows on December 5th, 1986 at St. Edward’s College in London, and on July 18th, 1987, he was ordained as a priest.

He has held the following pastoral and academic positions since his ordination: 1987–1991: Assistant Priest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Livulu, Archdiocese of Kinshasa; Between 1991 and 1996, he studied exegesis at the Ignatian Spirituality in Le Chatelard in Lyon, France, and at the pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, earning a doctorate in biblical theology and a license in sacred scripture.

Educator for Missionaries of Africa in Kahangala, Tanzania, from 1996 to 1999; Director of Toulouse’s formation house from 1999 to 2004; 2004-2010: Missionaries of Africa’s first assistant general. Since 2010, vice chancellor of PISAI and superior general of the Missionaries of Africa (the first African to hold this position) (Pontifical Institute of Arabic-Islamic Studies).

He was chosen to attend the Ordinary Assembly of the previous Synod of Bishops on the Family, which took place from October 4 to 25, 2015, by the Union of Superiors General. (SL) [Algenzia Fides, February 18, 2016].

Source: Anchorghana