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Caritas Ghana<br />
Bringing the CI Management Standards<br />
to the Bishops’ Conference<br />
The ecclesiastical administration<br />
of the Catholic Church in<br />
Ghana is located in 20 Dioceses<br />
which are clustered around four<br />
provinces (Archdioceses). All the 20<br />
Dioceses have either substantive<br />
Bishops or Archbishops. There are<br />
currently four emeritus Bishops,<br />
including one Cardinal who is based<br />
awareness of the Bishops on the<br />
Caritas Internationalis (CI) Management<br />
Standards (MS).<br />
The Workshop<br />
The National Catholic Secretariat was<br />
blessed to have Dr Aloysius John –<br />
Director of Institutional Development<br />
and Capacity Strengthening at CI<br />
General Secretariat in Rome to facilitate<br />
the workshop on 22 February,<br />
2016. In all, 16 Bishops/Archbishops<br />
All the participants who attended the workshop facilitated by Dr Aloysius John from Caritas Internationalis.<br />
in the Vatican as President of the<br />
Pontifical Council for Justice and<br />
Peace. Consequently, the National<br />
Episcopal Conference referred to as<br />
the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference<br />
(GCBC) has twenty-four (24)<br />
members, even though not all are in<br />
active service.<br />
The service of charity is at the heart of<br />
the Church’s nature and mission. For<br />
this reason, the Code of Canon Law,<br />
the Directory for the Pastoral Ministry<br />
of Bishops and the Apostolic Letter<br />
issued ‘Motu Proprio’ on ‘The Service<br />
of Charity’ have all placed unequivocal<br />
responsibility for the service of<br />
charity and its effective organization<br />
on the Bishops of the particular<br />
churches.<br />
It was therefore appropriate, necessary<br />
and desirable to heighten the<br />
CI introduced the Management Standards<br />
as a means of improving the<br />
management of the members of the<br />
Caritas Confederation and is to be<br />
regarded as a capacity building initiative<br />
aimed at sharing knowledge and<br />
mutual continuous learning. Management<br />
Standards need to be perceived<br />
not simply from a management point<br />
of view, but as a means which would<br />
contribute to planning for holiness, that<br />
is at the heart of the Church’s social<br />
mission in the perspective of the<br />
Gospel values and at the service of the<br />
human person as image of God.<br />
Specifically, the purpose of the<br />
workshop for the Members of the<br />
Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference<br />
was to help the entire Conference and<br />
individual Bishops in their on-going<br />
efforts to redefine and strengthen their<br />
service to the poor, as part of the<br />
important mission of the Church. The<br />
National Catholic Secretariat is already<br />
earnestly working to implement the<br />
Conference’s decision to secure their<br />
ownership of and legal backing to the<br />
Caritas trademark in Ghana.<br />
Caritas Africa Info: page/página 29<br />
and 25 Senior Directors of the secretariat<br />
of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’<br />
Conference attended the workshop.<br />
The presentation of Mr Aloysius John<br />
made copious references to the ‘Motu<br />
Proprio’ on ‘The Service of Charity,’<br />
the Kinshasa Declaration of the<br />
Bishops of Africa, the Papal Exhortation<br />
to the Church in Africa – Africae<br />
Munus, Catholic Social Teaching and<br />
the Scriptures to establish the rationale<br />
and purpose of the CI Management<br />
Standards.<br />
The Department of Human Development<br />
(DHD) undertook this activity<br />
as part of its institutional development<br />
and capacity strengthening programme<br />
which is currently being accompanied<br />
by Catholic Relief Services<br />
(CRS) in Ghana. This is being done as<br />
part of our full participation in relevant<br />
assess- (Continued on page 30)
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