The Parish Priest for Saint Theresa Catholic Church in Suhum of the Diocese of Koforidua, Monsignor Paul Lawer Kudjo has urged Ghanaians to eschew discrimination, ethnicity, and other intolerable divisive tendencies which have the potent to erode all the success that the Country has chalked over the years in Election.
He noted that over the years, the country has held successful elections and the Citizens are proud of themselves that these elections have been violent free, adding, “As we mark another period for the elections of our political leaders, permit me to urge all of us to uphold and defend the peace by ensuring that these elections also go on successfully. I do not doubt that as a people; we would rise to the occasion to ensure peace and tranquility before, during, and after these elections.”
Monsignor Paul Lawer Kudjo said this in Suhum when the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) in his Parish organized a Town Hall meeting for Stakeholders in Election ahead of the December 7th Parliamentary and Presidential Polls.
The main objective of this initiative was to re-echo the need for active community participation in building robust community interventions that promote development while addressing the misconception, which is gradually gaining grounds that community development is solely the responsibility of the MP and it is a nationwide active by the Church’s JPC.
The community dialogue is expected to ensure better understanding regarding the mandates of Parliament and local authority in the community development agenda to create an integrated and inclusive discourse for specific development agenda at the local areas.
The priest said over the years, the Catholic Church has been reckoned as a beacon of Ghana’s socio-economic development agenda and has considerable constituents who could be mobilized for community dialogues in the form of Town Hall Meetings to engender participation in governance with its numerous benefits to community development.
“We can only successfully do this by encouraging one another to actively participate in community development initiatives, Let us continuously tolerate one another, accept dissenting, divergent and constructive views as development is not just about the views of some persons but rather the collective views of all. For this reason, our development is anchored on both the majority and minority views, and with this in mind and the grace of the Lord, Ghana shall continuously be a beacon of hope, prosperity, and development and as a Church, we shall be the hope of glory as Christ is in us.”
The Reverend Father On behalf of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), extended the Conference’s heartfelt appreciation to Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) for supporting the Church over time in general and the particular Town Hall Meeting and assure them of their continuous commitment to support such development initiatives in furtherance of Ghana’s development agenda.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
