“Watch over, defend the people of God”: Cardinal in Ivory Coast to New Archbishop at Installation

Bouake, 17 September, 2024 / 8:55 PM

Jean-Pierre Cardinal Kutwa of Ivory Coast has called upon the new Local Ordinary of the country’s Catholic Archdiocese of Bouaké to shepherd the people of God under his pastoral care, protecting them against danger. 

In his homily during the September 14 installation of Archbishop Jacques Assanvo Ahiwa, Cardinal Kutwa emphasized the need for the Ivorian Archbishop to place love at the heart of his Episcopal ministry.

“As the shepherd of the people of God in Bouaké, your task is to guide them, watch over them, and defend them,” the Cardinal said.

Such shepherding, he noted, is only possible if one loves as Jesus loved us.

“If feeding means giving food, it implies much more than simply providing physical nourishment,” Cardinal Kutwa said during the Eucharistic celebration at St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus Cathedral of Bouaké Archdiocese.

Referring to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the Patron Saint of Bouaké Archdiocese, the 78-year-old Ivorian Cardinal, whose retirement from the pastoral care of Ivory Coast’s Catholic Archdiocese of Abidjan was accepted in May 2024 explained the central place of love in the mission of the Church. 

“Charity will give me the key to my vocation. I understood that if the Church had a heart, it would be burning with love. I understood that love alone drove the members of the Church to action. If love were to die out, the apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, and the martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I understood that love encompasses all vocations. That love is everything. It embraces all times and all places. Yes, I found my place in the Church. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, thus I will be everything, and my dream will be fulfilled,” he said.

Cardinal Kutwa urged the people of God to embrace the words of St. Thérèse's as their prayer.

“I want to count on you, people of God. Be the leaven that makes the dough rise in this new dynamic with and around your new Archbishop, for each of you is considered by God as an essential and irreplaceable link in the chain of evangelization,” he said.

The 55-year-old newly installed Ivorian Archbishop is a Clergy of the Catholic Diocese of Grand-Bassam, where he was ordained a Priest in December 1997.

As a Priest, he served in various capacities, including Parish Vicar of San François Xavier, Aboisso; Secretary General of the Diocese of Grand-Bassam and Diocesan Director of PMS.

Archbishop Ahiwa, who holds a Master’s degree in Biblical Theology from the Catholic University of West Africa and a Doctorate in Biblical Theology from the University of Strasbourg in France also served as Vicar General of his native Diocese of Grand Bassam.

In October 2020, he was Consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Bouaké Archdiocese following his May 2020 appointment; he was assigned the Titular See of Elefantaria in Mauritania.

Archbishop Ahiwa will shepherd the people of God in the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bouaké that was erected as a Prefecture Apostolic in May 1951, before it was elevated to a Diocese in September 1955. In December 1994, Pope St. John Paul II elevated it to an Archdiocese, with three Suffragan Dioceses: Abengourou, Bondoukou, and Yamoussoukro.

The Ivorian Metropolitan See measures 20,000 square kilometers and has 244,000 Catholics, who represent 17.6 percent of the population, according to 2022 statistics.

Justin Assalé contributed to the writing of this story