Catholic Bishops’ Conference deliberates on marital and family life

The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference is holding its 2017 annual plenary assembly to deliberate on issues of marital and family life in the church and the Ghanaian society at large.

The meeting, which commenced last Monday in Ho in the Volta Region, brought together 20 active members of the Bishops’ Conference and four Bishops Emeritus to fashion out strategies to address pertinent issues confronting families in the contemporary era and was captured on the theme, ‘Integral Pastoral Care for the Family in the Light of Amoris Laetitia.’

Addressing the opening ceremony, the President of the Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Philip Naameh, said the family was integral to the sustenance and growth of every society, as well as the Church, and as such deserved the necessary support to survive.

The opening ceremony, chaired by the President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, Nana Soglo Alloh IV, was attended by Catholic faithful, priests and representatives of other religious groups in the Catholic Church in Ghana.

There were goodwill messages from the Anglican Diocese of Ho, the regional chief imam and other groups within the church.

Ghanaian family

Most Rev. Naameh said the Ghanaian family system had over the years undergone changes with some emerging trends that were at variance with the tradition of faith and morals of the church.

“Some of these changes include the increase in the proportion of cohabitation and other sexual unions which were initially socially unacceptable but are now gaining greater social tolerance; as well as the phenomenon of teenage and single parenthood, poor or irresponsible parenting, separate household and distance marriages that make couples live apart,” Most Rev. Naameh said.

Most Rev. Naameh said the rise in the nuclear family system as against the extended family system in the Ghanaian society was a challenge to the institution of marriage and family.

There is now a way in which the Christian religion contributes to this lack of connection to the extended family through teachings and beliefs that demonise some family members as witches and spiritual enemies. This phenomenon is unfortunately one of the less desired results of contemporary African Christianity, since it ends up vilifying the institution of the African family,” he added.

Exorbitant bride price

Most Rev. Naameh further bemoaned the exorbitant amounts being charged by some families in the name of bride price, which he said was deterring young people from properly joining the institution of marriage.

“The issue of bride price which is frequently taken out of its original context is becoming increasingly monetised and exaggerated. The expense of marrying properly according to traditional rules has become, in some cases, quite burdensome for the average young man in Ghana seeking the hand of a woman in marriage,” he lamented.

All those issues, he said, needed to be addressed to support a better marriage and strong family system.

The Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, Jean Marie Speich, urged the church to adopt the approaches proposed by Pope Francis using the reports of the two synods and the teachings of Saint John Paul to form solid and fruitful families according to God’s plan “so that families are not only evangelised, but become themselves active agents of evangelisation to others”.

Commending the Catholic Church for its impressive support towards the socio-economic growth of the country, the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Mr Maxwell Blagodzi, said the collaboration between the church and the government had contributed greatly in promoting peace and unity.

He appealed to the church to spearhead the revolution for moral and social transformation