VIDEO: Remains of Ghana’s Cardinal Baawobr arrive home
The body of the late prelate Richard Baawobr was received in Accra by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference on Wednesday (21 December) at 7.40pm at Kotoka International Airport
The remains of Ghana’s third cardinal, the late Richard Cardinal Kuuia Baawobr, who doubled as the Bishop of the Wa Diocese and president of the Symposium Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), on Wednesday arrived in Accra from Rome.
The arrival of the remains of the late cardinal begins processes for the final burial mass and interment of the prelate, who died in the abode of the Missionaries of Africa in Rome, a few months after being created a cardinal by Pope Francis.
The body of the late prelate was received by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference on Wednesday (21 December) at about 7.40pm at Kotoka International Airport in Accra.
Led by the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Reverend Matthew Gyamfi, senior clergy said prayers in the company of priests and lay religious of the Roman Catholic Church in Ghana as well as representatives of the Wa Diocese and the late cardinal’s family.
The remains were flown to his home diocese on Thursday morning and will be kept at the Wa Regional Hospital as the Church makes preparations to bid him farewell at a funeral slated for 11 and 12 January 2023.
It will be recalled that the late Richard Cardinal Kuuia Baawobr, an honourable prince of the Church, was appointed a cardinal in August this year by Pope Francis, being the third Ghanaian prelate elevated to that position after Peter Cardinal Poreku Dery and Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson.
He left the shores of Ghana for his investiture at the Vatican, which was scheduled for 27 August 2022. However, Bishop Baawobr could not take part in the ceremony because of ill-health.
He was hospitalised at the Agostino Gemelli University Hospital/Polyclinic, where he underwent surgery. The cardinal was then discharged and move to stay at the Generalate of the Missionaries of Africa in Rome.
His demise was announced in a statement issued by the secretary general of the Missionaries of Africa, André-Léon Simonart, on Sunday 27 November.
Baawobr became the Bishop of Wa, in north-west Ghana, in 2016. He was well known locally for his charity and care for people with mental disabilities, in a country where there is still much stigmatisation of mental illness.
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