La Conferenza dei vescovi cattolici del
Ghana, riunita ad Accra dal 4 al 15 novembre scorso, ha pubblicato un
comunicato dal titolo “The pastoral challenges of the family in the
context of evangelisation” firmato dal suo presidente mons.
Joseph Osei-Bonsu, vescovo di Konongo-Mampong
(http://cbcgha.org/).
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ and
all people of goodwill who live in our land, grace and peace of God
the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its
true name be with you! (Eph. 3:15).
We, the members of the Ghana Catholic
Bishops’ Conference, meeting in our 2014 Annual Plenary Assembly in
Oshiuman, Accra, from 4th to 15th November, 2014, send you our
greetings of peace and blessing.
We give thanks to God for His grace and
mercies for guiding us through the events of the past year during
which as a Church we successfully organised a Second National
Pastoral Congress in Sunyani to chart a new path of evangelisation
for our Church’s mission in Ghana. We also recall with gratitude to
God our successful Ad Limina Visit to Rome this year during which we
met the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to give an account of our
stewardship. These graces of God to the Church, coupled with the fact
that our country, Ghana, continues to enjoy peace and good will among
the comity of nations, invite us to give praise to God. We
encourage all citizens to continue to seek the face of God and offer
fervent prayers for our dear Nation and the Church.
Theme of this year’s Plenary
The theme of this year’s plenary
Assembly is, “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context
of Evangelisation”. This theme was inspired by the just-ended
Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family held in Rome, from 5th
to 19th October, 2014 to consider the pastoral challenges that the
family faces today. Our deliberations on this theme were preceded by
four days of prayer and reflection, at the end of which we wish to
present to you and to the good people of Ghana and the world at large
the following pertinent teachings on the family.
The Church’s Teaching on the Family
The Church’s perennial and unchanging
teaching on the family is based on the nature of man but especially
on Scripture and Sacred Tradition namely, that God ordained marriage
to be between man and woman, when “God made them male and female
and blessed them”. God also intended marriage to be open to life
when, “He blessed them and said increase and multiply” (Gen.
1:27-28). Furthermore, God determined marriage to be indissoluble as
Jesus affirmed, “What therefore God has put together, let no man
put asunder” (Matt. 19:6).
The Church’s consistent teaching on
the importance of marriage and family life as revealed in Sacred
Scripture is also emphasised in the Magisterium. The Second Vatican
Council’s Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes (GS), for
instance, speaks about the dignity of marriage and family life (cf.
GS 47-52), defining marriage as a community of life and love and
placing love at the nucleus of the family (Eph. 5:25).
God the Creator, by forming the first
man and woman and commanding them to be fruitful and to multiply
(Gen. 1:28) definitively established the family to be a permanent
union between one man and one woman. Consequently, the family becomes
the sanctuary where life is born, nurtured and welcomed as a gift of
God. By matrimonial covenant which the Lord Jesus raised to the
dignity of a sacrament, a man and a woman come together to establish
between themselves a relationship of love which by its very nature is
ordered towards the good of the spouses and the procreation and
education of offspring. This covenant of love consequently takes the
character and effect of unity, indissolubility, fidelity and openness
to life. Marital love also requires the fidelity of the spouses
flowing from the gift of oneself to one’s lawful spouse (cf. Eph.
5:32).
Church as Family of God
The Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation,
Ecclesia in Africa (The Church in Africa) adopted a new image of the
Church: Church-family of God (Ecclesia in Africa, 63). This image
emphasizes our common origin and destiny as Children of God (Eph.
3:14). The African cherishes the family as the fundamental base of
humanity and of society. As a family, respect, sense of belonging and
care for one another are our values. Like the African family, the
Church always aims at building up her members, to uphold her image
and reinforce her values of care for others, solidarity, warmth in
human relationships, acceptance, dialogue and trust (Ecclesia in
Africa, 63). This explains why the Church is appreciated as a gift
from God given to building the Kingdom of reconciliation, justice and
peace here on earth and in Ghana (Africae Munus 7).
The Family as Subject of Evangelisation
The Fathers of Vatican II rightly noted
that evangelisation first takes place in the family, as parents “by
word and example, are the first heralds of the faith with regard to
their children” (Lumen Gentium 11). It is in the family that
children first learn about God, love of neighbour and the Church. As
such, parents are indispensable in sharing the faith with their
children. Parents are to assist children to make the appropriate
choices at the different stages of their lives.
Challenges of the Family
Today, the family is undergoing
significant challenges that rock the very foundation on which God has
set the human society. These crises manifest themselves in very many
ways.
Philosophy of Relativism and the Family
We are witnessing today the emergence
of a new reality that defines man as a free individual with the
license to do whatever she/he pleases. Unfortunately, this reality
has crept into the traditional Christian concept of the family,
redefining marriage to be a free union between any two people who are
attracted to each other whether they are of the same sex or not. The
new reality exhorts humans to give free expression to their sexual
feelings in all manner of ways. Some people suppress the words,
“husband” and “wife,” “father” and “mother” in favour
of words such as “partner”, “companion”, etc. The attempted
redefinition of these words distorts and clouds the true meaning of
marriage.
Negative Media Portrait of Marriage
The media has become a major source of
influence in the way young people conceive marriage. They amplify
failing and failed relationships between males and females and
further celebrate their separation. Ghanaian young people continually
keep themselves updated on the marital mishaps of celebrities, get
exposed to explicit immoral scenes in movies and the internet and
come to associate human sexuality with a certain casualness and
irresponsible experimentation. It therefore makes it easy to treat
one’s partner merely as an object of self-gratification.
Regrettably, the many good examples of faithful couples are either
ignored or not reported by the media.
Infidelity of Couples
Some Christian men and women,
especially those who indulge in casual and pre-marital sex, do not
develop the critical awareness of their changed status once they get
married. They continue to maintain sexual relations with other men
and women outside their marriage. Such betrayal often leads to the
break-up of many marriages.
Domestic Violence in Marriage
Domestic violence is a real issue in
many Ghanaian homes and is suffered by both men and women. While some
wives are battered into silence and therefore live in perpetual fear
of their husbands, some husbands are also unable to come home after
work for fear of their wives. This often leads some men and women
into alcoholism and some enter into amorous relationships with other
women and men. The work place, the market and even at times, the
Church, have become the refuge for some men and women escaping the
hazards of domestic violence. In some cases, innocent children and
house helps fall victim to this violence.
Pressures on Marriage and Families
Many a couple has challenges with
building their lives together in intimate relationship due to
pressures of work. The phenomenon where couples are regularly absent
from the marital home due to work and education does not help in the
stability of the marriage. Children become the ultimate victims in
the event of divorce. Furthermore, demands from either partner’s
family for assistance most often incur the displeasure of the other
spouse. Some husbands and wives find it difficult relating well to
the families of their spouses. This often creates resentment and may
lead to divorce.
In addition, when marriage has been for
some time without children, there is always pressure brought to bear
on the man but most often on the woman. For many Ghanaian
communities, it is only when a child is born to the couple that the
marriage is seen as consolidated and no explanation to the contrary
is good enough. In some extreme cases, some women, unable to bear the
pressure are actually known to have allowed their husbands to marry
another woman and get children by her. Such arrangements apart from
being wrong and opposed to the teaching on Christian family often
result in disaster and tragedy.
Inequality in Marriage
Ghanaian Christians have to be educated
out of their belief in the inequality of husband and wife. Most of us
in Ghana live in male-dominated societies which believe in the
superiority of the man over the woman. As such, the Christian
doctrine on the equality of husband and wife is a teaching that some
find difficult to accept. The traditional Ghanaian male believes that
the woman is inferior to the man in marriage. We observe the
phenomenon of polygamy among our Christian faithful as some men
prefer to marry more than one woman. This is due to the Ghanaian
culture which seems to condone polygamy. These notions are wrong and
ought to change.
Bridewealth in Marriage
The issue of bridewealth (also known in
some societies as dowry) and its significance for marriages also
needs to be addressed. Even though most Christians would not accept
the complete abolition of the bridewealth because of its significance
for the stability of the marriage, we must do away with the excesses
that are making it difficult for poor people to marry. Furthermore,
one cannot deny completely the fact that the payment of the
bridewealth in some cultures is partially to blame for the low place
we give the woman in her marital home and the society at large. An
effective evangelisation of our Christian families will base family
life on the love that bonds the couple together and not on the
bridewealth.
Cohabitation/Concubinage
We bemoan the practice of cohabitation
or concubinage in which couples that have performed the customary
marriage see no need to go ahead to regularise their marriages. We
call for an end to this practice. Reasons such as the need to study
each other, lack of funds to celebrate the marriage, among others, do
not hold any significance. For in such a practice, not only do the
couples fail to make God the centre of their marriages but they also
cut themselves off from the Eucharist as the source of their
spiritual sustenance.
Socio-political Challenges to the
Family
What compounds these challenges to the
family are other serious socio-economic and political problems in our
society. Our beloved country, Ghana as a family is beset with the
nagging problem of polarization along political and tribal lines. We
experience the politicisation of almost every national issue, and a
growing religious and political intolerance. We see also the lack of
the fear of God and ostentation in our body politic and social
fabric. There is deceit, commercialization of religion and the
“hijacking” of some religious and opinion leaders to divide and
rule the society. All of these are bad examples for our children and
youth. That is why we strongly deplore this state of affairs in our
nation and urge all Ghanaians to desist from them and come together
to address these evils.
We also deplore in no uncertain terms a
radical and faceless culture of death which promotes among other
things the supply and use of the condom in our schools, the in vitro
fertilization and the contraception agenda of some national and
international institutions in Ghana. Painfully, some Ghanaian
homosexual and pro-abortion groups, and even our Ministry of Gender,
Children and Social Protection overtly and subtly support these
international organizations. We wish to draw the attention of all
Ghanaians to this dangerous “culture of death” being imposed on
us and call on all Ghanaians to forcefully reject this so-called
freedom which indeed is suicidal. Further, we urge those who
represent Ghana at the United Nations and other such bodies to
realise that these practices are culturally abominable and morally
and spiritually reprehensible. We therefore urge them to refrain
from endorsing such disastrous protocols on our behalf. Whenever they
do sign such protocols, they betray the trust the good people of
Ghana have vested in them. We are to remind ourselves of the well
known fact that a nation that kills its unborn babies has no future.
Ghana’s Economy and the family
The current state of the Ghanaian
economy is of concern to all of us and affects the family adversely.
We are witnessing a consistent high cost of living, hyper-inflation,
a depreciating cedi and high cost of goods and services. We bemoan
the fact that Ghana’s economy is fast becoming one of “buying and
selling.” Unbearably high taxes are causing many nascent private
businesses to fold up. At the same time, we are not seeing aggressive
efforts to set up more industries to take care of rising youth
unemployment and low levels of development. We join our voices to
those of the many Ghanaians who disapprove of the importation of
furniture from China for our Parliament when made-in-Ghana furniture
could have been patronized to boost the furniture industry and the
economy as a whole. Economic practices such as these, impact
negatively on most families, leading to despair, poverty, sense of
abandonment and marginalization. They threaten the stability of
families making it difficult for them to actually live out their
expectations as Christian families.
We note the various efforts of
government, aimed at improving the economy, including the ongoing
discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the signing
of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the Senchi Consensus.
We can only hope that these interventions will lead to economic
transformation that will arrest the rising spate of youth
unemployment and low levels of development. We pray that our own
home-grown economic policies such as those implemented under the
Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), the Ghana Youth
Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Authority (GYEEDA) and the
Youth Enterprise Support (YES) may be led by qualified and competent
persons. These policies should be given the utmost priority over
externally-funded support programmes. Our experience is that
externally-funded economic interventions almost always lead to
unbearable consequences on citizens.
Corruption and the Family
We have time and again spoken about the
twin-evil of bribery and corruption in Ghana but we regret to note
that these evils continue to ravage every fabric of the Ghanaian
society. Present-day Ghana is openly and pervasively corrupt. People
at all levels of society, including some Christians, are engaged in
naked corruption with impunity. We commend the Government for the
recent prosecution of some high level personalities in government and
for setting up various Commissions of enquiry into alleged corrupt
practices at high levels. We do think, however, that our Government
could do more to nip this canker in the bud. Certainly, individuals
and private businesses should do their part to end corruption in our
country. Reports of corruption from the media and on-going national
commissions of enquiry such as the Judgment Debts, GYEEDA and SADA,
National Service Scheme and the 2014 FIFA World Cup as well as
allegations of corruption in CHRAJ are worrying. We decry the
mismanagement and apparent failure of these programmes and
institutions and call on Government to do all it can to ensure that
they deliver on their mandate. We also expect Government to act
without fear or favour in dealing with those who will be found
culpable in the reports of the on-going investigations.
We urge the financial institutions,
especially the banks, to beware of money laundering and the reported
cases of cheating unsuspecting clients by some unscrupulous workers
in the banks and financial institutions. We appeal to the Bank of
Ghana to come to the aid of all those who loose their monies through
some failed microfinance institutions.
Greed breeds hard-heartedness, theft,
blackmail, bribery and corruption and even murder. Corruption
encourages and condones incompetence, mediocrity at work and
disrespect for higher authority as well as unnecessary bureaucracy.
It drives away investment and leads to unnecessary suffering and
poverty. We therefore call on all Ghanaians to make a serious
self-examination of conscience concerning bribery and corruption and
repent. We must all resolve from today never to engage in acts of
bribery and corruption or condone the same.
Road Accidents and the Family
We have observed with growing concern
the increasing rate of preventable fatal accidents on our roads.
Roads in many parts of the country are deplorable and those in better
shape are not properly marked or sign-posted. According to the
national Roads Safety Commission in 2013, about two thousand people
lost their lives in road and transport accidents. The trend for this
year suggests that we may exceed this figure by the end of the year
if we do not make immediate and radical changes in the way we use our
roads. The lasting trauma and the other untold hardships to the
bereaved families are obvious. The country in turn loses its precious
citizens and becomes poorer.
We therefore urge all Ghanaians,
especially transport owners, all drivers and other road users, as a
matter of urgency, to exercise maximum vigilance and abide by all
road and transport regulations. Passengers and pedestrians should
protest, and try to restrain and report all drivers who drive
carelessly to the appropriate authorities. Further, we urge all our
priests and ministers of other religions to use the pulpit to educate
and remind their followers about the do’s and don’ts on our
roads. All in Ghana need to know that the fatal accidents on our
roads are neither the will of God for us nor due to our destiny.
Rather, they are the result of our own carelessness and indiscipline.
God has given us the responsibility to prevent these accidents from
happening.
Strike Actions and the Family
As Pastors of God’s people, we cannot
remain unconcerned about the spate of strike actions which have hit
our country recently. We wish to call on the Government and Organised
Labour to always use dialogue and negotiations in dealing with labour
disputes and agitations. We are prepared to play a mediation role in
the resolution of the ongoing impasse among the parties.
The Threat of Ebola, Cholera and the
Family
We regret that the Ebola Viral Disease
which has hit the West African region, especially Liberia, Guinea and
Sierra Leone, has so far claimed more than 5,000 lives. We pray for
the families which have lost their loved ones and ask that intensive
prayers be offered for an end to this scourge, even as we urge all
Ghanaians to continue to observe all health safety precautions and to
refer to and abide by the instructions we issued on the Ebola disease
just last August. On cholera, we urge the continued observance of
hygienic conditions to completely deal with it and prevent its
recurrence. We appeal to all Ghanaians to take seriously the
directives by the Ministry of Health on how to prevent these
diseases.
New Policy Considerations in Education
and the Family
We learn that the Ministry of Education
is in the process of proposing a new consolidated bill on Education
which aims at effectively decentralizing education service delivery
and management. We are not opposed to education reforms but feel the
need for broad-based consultation on such reforms, especially with
all major stakeholders including the Church. Since parents have
conferred life on their children, they have the most natural and
divine obligation to educate their children in schools and
institutions of their choice. This inalienable right has been
significantly usurped by the Computerised School Selection and
Placement System (CSSPS), a system we continue to decry for reasons
many Ghanaians are beginning to understand. Parents must be
acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children.
We therefore call on Government to be transparent on any on-going
policy considerations on education reforms. We urge the Government to
expedite action on the formalization of the Partnership Agreement on
Education submitted by Religious and Other Bodies whose schools are
in the public system.
Some Pastoral Recommendations for
Marriage and Family Life
In the face of these and other
formidable challenges to the family and our society, we, your Pastors
exhort you our Faithful to be responsible citizens and to be loyal to
what Scripture and the Church teach about the family and marriage.
Given the demands of married life, we
exhort all who are called by God to this vocation to prepare
themselves adequately. We call on the National Catechetical
Commission to develop a structured and sustained programme of
on-going formation for prospective and married couples.
We encourage the formation of Christian
Family Movements to promote Christian marriage. Further, we propose a
Family Week to be celebrated annually and we urge all Priests,
Religious and Laity to observe this week as such. We equally call on
our priests and religious to recognize that home visitation to
families is part of their ordinary pastoral duties. We urge all
Parishes and Dioceses to create occasions for the unmarried,
especially the youth, to come together for retreats, workshops etc.,
to prepare for their life’s vocations.
Formators in our major seminaries and
other formation houses should continue to deepen candidates’
knowledge in marriage and family life, while priests and religious in
the field should equip themselves with periodic on-going pastoral
formation and study sessions to keep abreast of Church teaching on
marriage.
We ask the whole Church to show special
love and attention to childless couples. The marriages of spouses to
whom God has not granted children should radiate a fruitfulness of
charity, of hospitality and of sacrifice.
Commendation of Faithful Couples and
Families
We, your Shepherds, commend the good
work of all faithful couples who witness to family values inspired by
the Gospel in spite of the many challenges. We call on all pastoral
agents to give special attention to the family in their ministry,
especially to families in distress. Let all parents and guardians
take their responsibility more seriously, mindful of the fact that
they are the very first agents of the human and religious formation
of their families and society at large. As your Pastors, we pledge to
continue to work with our pastoral agents and the State to ensure
that the fundamental human values, such as belief in God, the respect
for life, the virtues of sincerity, honesty and hard work, are
acquired first from the home.
Conclusion
The Church will continue to proclaim
the unwavering truth that monogamy is what God has ordained and that
polygamy is contrary to conjugal love and incompatible with the unity
of marriage. She will continue to teach that marriage is between a
man and a woman and not people of the same sex. The Church will also
continue to teach that divorce from a living and lawful spouse is not
permitted by the Church because it separates what God has joined
together. She suffers with those who are not admitted to communion
due to their marital status and will continue to journey with them in
the faith to encourage them not to despair.
It is without doubt that the family of
today faces formidable pastoral and socio-economic challenges which
threaten its fundamental role as the basic unit of society and the
Church. We your Pastors assure all families of our encouragement and
prayers in the face of these challenges. We call on all Christians
and people of goodwill to continue to be strong and committed to the
family.
May the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph, continue to intercede for all families and for all of us. May
the God of all consolation and peace fill you with His grace and
peace (1 Cor. 1:3).
Most rev. Joseph
Osei-Bonsu,
bishop of Konongo-Mampong,
presidentof Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference
bishop of Konongo-Mampong,
presidentof Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference
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