Pope Francis has appointed the Catholic Bishop of the Wa Diocese, Most Rev. Richard Kuuia Baawobr as a new Cardinal from Ghana.
Bishop Baawobr who was appointed as Bishop of Wa in 2016, thus becomes the third Cardinal ever in the history of the country after Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson and the late Peter Porekuu Dery.
The announcement of Bishop Baawobr and 20 other new Cardinals for the Catholic Church was made by Pope Francis after the Regina Coeli on Sunday, May 29, 2022, in Rome, Vatican City.
Bishop Baawobr, a member of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, is known in Ghana and beyond for many acts of charity and humanitarianism, key among them, his love for people suffering from mental challenges and using media platforms to create awareness about mental illnesses in a country where stigmatization of people with such challenges is high.
Born on June 21, 1959, in Tom-Zendagangn, Ko in the Nandon District of Ghana’s Wa Diocese, he had his Primary education at Tom-Zendagangn from 1965 to 1972 and continued at the St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in Wa from 1971 to 1977.
He had his Secondary Education at the Nandom Secondary School and St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary.
In 1979, he went to St. Victor’s Major Seminary at Tamale as a Diocesan Seminarian.
Feeling God’s call to be a Missionary, he joined the Society of Missionaries of Africa (M.Afr.) in 1981 after his Philosophical Studies and rose through the ranks to be the Superior General of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) before being appointed in 2016 as Bishop of the Diocese of Wa (Ghana).
He is expected to take up the post at the Vatican in August with the 20 other new Cardinals; 16 of whom are under 80 years old and thus eligible to enter a conclave to elect a new Pope after the death or resignation of a Pope.
Source: expressnewsghana.com
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