AMECEA: Late SECAM President Described as a Humble, Hard-Working Man: AMECEA Chairman
His Excellency Richard Cardinal Kuuia Baawobr, the late SECAM's President. Credit; Courtey photo
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
The sad message of the late president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) Richard Kuuia Cardinal Baawobr as described by the chairman of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) region, has been received in a “shock” by the Church in Africa.
In a message announcing the death of the late Cardinal, a member of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), the Secretary General of the congregation Fr. André-Léon Simonart noted, “With sadness and pain we hereby inform you of the return to the heavenly Father of Cardinal Richard Baawobr which occurred today, Sunday, 27 November 2022.”
He narrated in the Sunday statement that the Cardinal passed while in Rome while undergoing treatment in one of the hospitals saying, “Our confrere was taken by ambulance from the Generalate to the Gemelli Hospital at 5.45pm and we received the sad news at 6.25pm.”
“May Richard rest in the peace of his Lord whom he so generously served,” the Secretary General expressed and continued, “On behalf of the bereaved Society, Our prayer and our thoughts go also to his family, to his diocese, his fellow bishops, to all his friends and acquaintances.”
Sharing in the loss of the Ghanaian Cardinal who was appointed the President of SECAM in about four months ago, the AMECEA Chairman Bishop Charles Sampa Kasonde expressed, “His (Cardinal Baawobr) wide missionary and administrative experience as Superior General of the widely celebrated Missionaries of Africa who are first evangelizers of many countries in AMECEA region blended so well with his humility and hard-working spirit.”
“These are the missionary ingredients which SECAM very much needs especially now as we continue with the Synodal journey at continental level,” Bishop Kasonde of Solwezi Diocese in Zambia highlighted in a message addressed to the President of Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, adding that, “On this note, I join my heart with the entire family of God under SECAM in mourning the loss that this death has brought on us all.”
Speaking on behalf of the Bishops of AMECEA region, the Prelate ask for God’s graces upon all the bereaved to understand God’s will saying, “At this time when darkness has engulfed our hearts and minds, it is not easy for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ghana, the Diocese of Wa, the Missionaries of Africa, the Secretariat of SECAM and indeed the entire Catholic family to understand God’s will. For this reason, I only pray that the Risen Lord gives us faith inspiring answers to understand and accept God’s will.”
Cardinal Baawobr was appointed the President of SECAM at the end of the 19th SECAM Plenary Assembly that was conducted July 30, 2022. Prior to this appointment, the Local Ordinary of Ghana’s Wa Diocese was among the 21 Cardinal’s Pope Francis named on May 29. This appointment was followed by another by the Vatican as member of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity in October, a situation which Bishop Kasonde says “are indicators of how much hope the Church in Africa and beyond had in him (Cardinal Baawobr).”
“Trusting in the Risen Lord Jesus Christ, I join you in prayer that our Creator who has called our beloved Cardinal Richard may grant him eternal rest and comfort the hearts of all the Bishops in Africa, the Missionaries of Africa, his relatives and all the faithful in Ghana and on the continent of Africa,” Bishop Kasonde concluded.
