SECAM: President Asks for Prayers after Testing Positive for COVID-19
Philippe Nakellentuba Cardinal Ouédraogo, the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences for Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), (file picture)
By Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
The President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences for Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), Philippe Nakellentuba Cardinal Ouédraogo, has asked for prayers after testing positive for COVID-19.
“We come to inform you that this morning we received the results of the test of our Archbishop. The test is positive and he has been transferred to the former Genets Clinic,” the Vicar General of Burkina Faso’s Ouagadougou Archdiocese Fr. Alfred Ouédraogo confirmed on Monday, March 30.
“The Cardinal asks you to transmit this information to the people of God and to reassure them. He also invites you to remain united in prayer for him and for all the other sick people as well as for all those who care for them,” Fr. Ouédraogo reported.
Cardinal Ouédraogo, the local Ordinary of Burkina Faso’s Ouagadougou Archdiocese is the President of the Symposium of Member Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), where the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) is a member among eight other regional bodies.
Sending his solidarity message, the First Vice President of SECAM, Bishop Sithembele Anton Sipuka of South Africa’s Mthatha Diocese, has assured Cardinal Ouédraogo of continuous prayers and encouraged him to keep hopeful in the Lord.
“We thank God that it was discovered early enough to be dealt with,” Bishop Sipuka said in a letter addressed to Cardinal Ouédraogo on Wednesday, April 1.
“We would like to assure you of our continuous prayer for a speedy recovery, and as this disease is now a global phenomenon, we include in our prayers the whole world for a quick arrest of the spread and for a cure to be found,” he added.
The chairman of AMECEA one of the Regional Conferences of SECAM, Bishop Charles Kasonde reiterated Bishop Sipuka’s message saying, “I received the news, but the Cardinal is in our prayers, wishing him well that he may recover soon.”
Cardinal Ouédraogo facilitated the recent SECAM Standing Committee meeting held in Kenya’s capital Nairobi from 4-7, March 2020, where he facilitated the formulation of SECAM’s prayer which asks God to end the spread of Coronavirus.
SECAM’s treasurer Archbishop John Bonaventure Kwofie of Ghana’s Accra Archdiocese recalls how the 75-year-old Cardinal insisted on making the COVID-19 pandemic a pastoral priority.
“At the meeting of the Standing Committee, he was deeply worried about this scourge but demonstrated leadership when he said, ‘our people must stay alive and healthy to serve God’, and so he led us to compose a prayer against the spread of COVID-19,” Archbishop Kwofie said.
Cardinal Ouédraogo was elected SECAM president in July 2019 after the 18th SECAM Plenary Assembly and Golden Jubilee in Kampala, Uganda.
