SECAM: Cardinal Baawobr Mourned as “Worthy Son” of the Church

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

Members of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) have remembered the late Richard Kuuia Cardinal Baawobr as a Shepherd who was a worthy son of the Church.

In their condolences message signed by SECAM’s first Vice-president His Eminence Fridolin Besungu Cardinal Ambongo, he invites all the faithful of the Church, Family of God in Africa and Madagascar, to pray for the eternal rest of the “illustrious departed in the House of the Father.”

“The Universal Church has, thus, lost one of her worthy sons and Pastors who served the Lord and his brothers and sisters with dedication and generosity,” reads part of the message shared with AMECEA online Tuesday, November 29, as Cardinal Ambongo a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (OFM Cap) adds that he sends deepest condolences to Pope Francis, who has lost a precious collaborator, to Bishops of Africa, Bishops of Ghana, to the clergy, consecrated persons and lay faithful of the Diocese of WA; to his religious family, the Missionaries of Africa; to his biological family; and to all the people who knew the late Cardinal Baawobr.

In a different statement from the President of the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), an entity initiated by SECAM, Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyèse Badejo eulogized the late Ghanaian Cardinal as a Prelate who was “a symbol of great hope to the Church in Africa.”

He noted in his Monday, November 28, message that Cardinal Baawobr’s acceptance to be the President of SECAM, “injected a new dynamism into the life of the Church in Africa.

“The ever-smiling Cardinal immediately rallied the new executive and Standing Committee of SECAM to a meeting a mere two days after his election on July 30, 2022 to define a new course for SECAM to better address the recommendations of the immediate past executive and Standing Committee, namely unity and communion in the Church, Financial autonomy, clearly defined responsibilities and other recommendations of the Kampala Document, the pastoral letter issued by SECAM after its Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2009,” Bishop Badejo of Oyo Diocese in Nigeria added.

Bishop Badejo a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication acknowledged that Cardinal Baawobr the first ever Ghanaian to be appointed to head SECAM was enthusiastic of the direction to take and see SECAM grow, a gesture he showed “through his adoption of a synodal and inclusive style of procedure, even from the conduct of his first and only Standing Committee meeting.”

“He (Cardinal Baawobr) expressed his desire to help SECAM recover lost ground in its pastoral and administrative obligations to the local churches and to help Africa participate effectively in the ongoing universal Synodal process,” the Nigerian Prelate shared his tribute adding that, “As it turns out, all that was not to be (and) SECAM will have to forge ahead without its beloved new President.”

Cardinal Baawobr, a member of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) congregation died aged 63 at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.