Sekondi-Takoradi, 09 April, 2023 / 9:25 pm (ACI Africa).
The planned Diocesan Synod in Ghana’s Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese is to examine issues relating to youth ministry in general and the role of Catholic youth in the Church in particular, the Local Ordinary has said.
In a statement issued Monday, April 3, Bishop John Baptist Attakruh says the decision to convene the Diocesan Synod on the youth ministry came “after a prayerful reflection on my interaction with various segments of Christ's faithful in the Diocese, especially with the youth throughout my pastoral visits to the parishes, and in consultation with the Presbyteral Council, the College of Consultors and the Diocesan Pastoral Council.”
Bishop Attakruh goes on to explain the reasons behind the six-day Diocesan Synod that he says is to begin on November 14, including the need for “effective youth formation”, and a way of addressing the challenge of “the dwindling number of the Catholic population”, which members of the Ghana Conference of Catholic Bishops (GCBC) have described as “alarming”.
“A Diocesan Synod on the Youth has become necessary as I consider effective youth formation as an essential component of pastoral ministry in the Diocese to better respond to the reality of the dwindling number of the Catholic population,” the Ghanaian Bishop says.
In their message ahead of Christmas 2022, GCBC members said that over the past decades, the population of Catholics in Ghana has been on a downward trajectory, “from 15.1% in the 2000 census, to 13.1% in the 2010 census and further declined to 10% in the 2021 census.”
