Catholic Bishops in Ghana Announce “with deep sorrow” Death of Colleague

Tamale, 31 May, 2022 / 9:25 PM

Catholic Bishops in Ghana have, “with deep sorrow”, announced the death of their 89-year-old colleague, who had retired from the pastoral care of Ghana’s Tamale Archdiocese in 2009 at the age of 76.

In their Tuesday, May 31 statement, the President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference (GCBC) says, “It is with deep sorrow that I announce to you the demise of Most Rev. Gregory E Kpiebaya, Archbishop Emeritus of Tamale.”

“I commend to your prayers the peaceful repose of his soul,” Archbishop Philip Naameh of Tamale Archdiocese says about his predecessor, Archbishop Kpiebaya, who was at the helm of the Ghanaian Metropolitan See from 1994 until his retirement in February 2009.

The Ghanaian Archbishop died “in the early hours of this morning 31st May 2022 at the Tamale Teaching Hospital,” the statement by the leadership of GCBC addressed to Bishops and the Apostolic Nuncio in Ghana indicates.

A member of the Clergy of Ghana’s Catholic Diocese of Wa where he was ordained a Priest in September 1962, the late Archbishop Kpiebaya was ordained a Bishop for his native Episcopal See in March 1975. 

He was at the helm of Wa Diocese until March 1994 when Pope John Paul II transferred him to Tamale Archdiocese where he succeeded the late Archbishop Peter Poreku Dery.

At the height of Ghana’s 2016 general election, Archbishop Kpiebaya called on politicians to maintain peace in the West African nation. 

The late Archbishop cautioned politicians against using “foul means” to win the polls. 

In the May 31 statement, GCBC President says his predecessor’s funeral and burial arrangements will be announced later.