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Funeral of Late Ghanaian Cardinal Planned for Next Month after Arrival of Body from Rome

Late Richard Cardinal Baawobr of Wa Diocese in Ghana). Credit: Wa Diocese

By Magdalene Kahiu

Wa, 07 December, 2022 / 9:45 pm (ACI Africa).

The funeral of the late Richard Kuuia Cardinal Baawobr who served as the Local Ordinary of the Catholic Diocese of Wa in Ghana until his death on November 27 has been planned for next month after his body will have been flown from Rome.

In a Tuesday, December 6 statement, the recently elected Diocesan Administrator of Wa Diocese says the body of Cardinal Baawobr is scheduled to depart from Rome to the capital city of Ghana, Accra, on 5 January 2023.

In the statement, Fr. Edward Tengan says the “Funeral and traditional rites” for the late Cardinal will take place on January 11, and the Requiem Mass on the following day.

“We shall keep updating you with details as events develop,” Fr. Tengan says about the final rites for the late member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) who died aged 63 at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

The Diocesan Administrator of Wa urges those with tributes to submit them by December 17 to Fr. Gervase Angsotinge at gtangso@yahoo.com, copied to bishopwa@gmail.com 

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“We continue to share the firm belief that the Lord whom Richard Cardinal Kuuia Baawobr, M.Afr served so faithfully will mercifully grant him peace and eternal rest in His kingdom,” he says.

The Ghanaian-born Cardinal passed on days after he was discharged from hospital in Rome, and reportedly expressed gratitude to all those who accompanied him with prayers.

Cardinal Baawobr had been among the 21 Pope Francis named on May 29, and among the 20 he created during the August 27 Consistory. The late Cardinal missed the August 27 Consistory that was presided over by the Holy Father in St. Peter’s Basilica due to a heart problem. 

The fact that the Church leader did not attend the August 27 Consistory did not prevent him from being elevated to the College of Cardinals.

The Cardinal who had been at the helm of Ghana’s Wa Diocese since May 2016 was elected President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) on July 30 at the end of the 19th Plenary Assembly of the continental symposium that was held in Accra, the capital city of Ghana.

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The late Local Ordinary of Wa had been appointed to the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity on October 7.

He is the third Ghanaian Cardinal after the late Peter Cardinal Dery and the Vatican-based Peter Appiah Cardinal Turkson.

Magdalene Kahiu

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.

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