The Emeritus Archbishop of Kumasi, the Most Reverend Peter Kwasi Sarpong, has cautioned Catholics to refrain from being part of the political intimidation, deceit and intolerance that have become endemic to politics, particularly during elections, in Ghana.
�In view of this year�s elections, let Catholics who respect their role and dignity as Catholics keep that dignity by having a special respect for truth and integrity.�
The clergyman, who has become known for his often unreserved condemnation of social ills in society, was addressing thousands of Catholics who thronged the Kumasi Jubilee Park on Sunday for a thanksgiving mass to climax 130 years of Catholicism in the archdiocese of Kumasi.
In the inaugural lecture of the Freedom Power Lectures 2012 in Accra, the Most Rev Sarpong passed a damning verdict on Ghana�s democracy, pointing out that the country�s politics was characterised �by deceit, impossible promises and unrealistic undertakings.�
However, on Sunday he appeared to focus on members of his church.
�We need Catholics who will set the example in political truth and integrity and not follow the mob in their folly; we need Catholics whose goal is peace, Catholics who know that peace is not the absence of war but the right ordering of things, he stressed.
Before concluding his 19-page speech, which catalogued numerous achievements by the archdiocese and also traced its history, he asked Ghanaians to pray so that Ghana would be rid of the phenomenon of machomen, crude and unscrupulous propaganda machinery and vote rigging, among others.
The Archbishop gave high marks generally for the performance of the archdiocese since its establishment, but called on members to see the anniversary as a time for self-examination, cautioning them against the temptation of complacency.
According to him, the anniversary should ginger members to aim at bringing in more people to join the Catholic faith, work on bringing back backsliding Catholics and produce Catholics who will be the �salt the earth and light the world�.
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