Ghanaian elected first African head of Catholic Men’s council
A Ghanaian, Sir Knight Edward Aloysius Prah, has been elected President of the International Council of Catholic Men (Unum Omnes), an umbrella body of national organisations of Catholic men.
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The election of Sir Kt Prah made him the first African to head the 67-year-old organisation, which fosters lay apostolate and dissemination of the church's teachings.
His election took place at the just-ended general assembly of the organisation in Vienna, Austria.
He attended the September 26 to October 2, 2015 General Assembly in the company of Sir Kt Tony Kemavor, the Continental Delegate of Unum Omnes to West Africa and Sir Kt. Derx Baffour, who was also elected to serve on the board of Unum Omnes for six years.
Ghana is represented on the International Council of Catholic Men (Unum Omnes) by the Noble Order of the Knights of Marshall, a Catholic friendly society.
Vision
Sharing his vision with the Daily Graphic, Sir Kt Prah pledged to position the organisation in a better state than he inherited it.
He said he intended to provide leadership to the Bureau of Unum Omnes to address challenges such as finance, dwindling membership and lack of active participation by member organisations in the affairs of Unum Omnes outside the general assembly meetings.
“Having been a member of the last bureau for two terms, my vision is to build on the achievements of my predecessor in all the areas of challenge and leave Unum Omnes better than I inherited it,” he said.
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Achieving the vision
Sir Kt Prah said he would encourage member organisations to voluntarily increase their annual subscriptions according to their capacity, as well as find innovative ways in their countries to raise funds to support activities of the International body.
He said he would also revive the interest of dormant member organisations to enable them to rejoin Unum Omnes and increase African presence by at least five countries.
“In both cases, the strategies will include contacts through Bishops’ Conferences of the targeted countries. Already some positive results using similar contacts have emerged from Spain, Malta and Uganda.
“With the help of the Knights of Marshall it should be possible to get Togo, Benin and Sierra Leone enrolled, as well as Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso in future when councils are consecrated there,” he said.
Sir Kt Prah, who was the 27th Supreme Knight of the Knights of Marshall, indicated that he would further increase the visibility of Unum Omnes at the Vatican through the Pontifical Council for the Laity through regular visits, reports, voicing opinions and publicly supporting the church’s stand on international issues of interest to it.
That, he said, would also involve collaborating with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace to develop ways for individuals of member organisations to study and apply the church’s social teaching in their social and professional lives as an expression of their faith.
Honour to Noble Order
Sir Kt Prah dedicated the honour done him to the Noble Order of Knights and Ladies of Marshall, and prayed for God’s guidance in his leadership.
He appealed to Ghanaians, especially brothers and sisters of the Noble Order, to pray for him for the Lord to give him wisdom, strength and courage to lead Unum Omnes in the next three years.