The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) has reaffirmed its unflinching support for the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill and urged Ghanaians to support its passage into law.
It explained that the Bill seeks to nip in the bud the growing socio-moral canker of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual Plus (LGBTQIA ) in the country and protect its religious and traditional values.
The call was made in a communiqué issued by the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference at the end of its Annual Plenary Assembly held in Wa.
It was signed by the Most Rev. Philip Naameh, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale and the President of the Ghana Bishops’ Conference and read by the Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, the Archbishop of Cape Coast and Vice President of the GCBC, during a mass service at the St. Andrews Cathedral in Wa.
“The position of the Catholic Church on LGBTQIA has remained the same: that, such practices are against not only Christian Values but Muslim and Ghanaian Traditional values as well,” the communiqué said.
“During our interaction with the people of the Upper West Region, the Muslim position of LGBTQIA was reiterated by the Regional Chief Imam. Similarly, the Chiefs of Wa and Jirapa Traditional areas also expressed their support for the Bill,” it added.
On good governance, the communiqué appreciated the positive achievements chalked by successive governments in the areas of infrastructure development, improved access to quality health, education and essential utilities such as water and electricity.
“However, we and many other Ghanaians have observed that our numerous challenges persist,” it said.
The challenges include youth unemployment, bribery, corruption, greed, selfishness, lack of patriotism, poverty, deplorable roads, carnage on the roads, armed robbery, murder and other crimes as well as illegal mining.
The rest are weak and ineffective institutions of governance, abandoned and unfinished government projects, the culture of impunity, examination malpractices, violence, intimidation, attack on media men and women, human trafficking and abductions.
The communiqué pointed out that this worrying state of the nation called for some fundamental changes in the nation’s governance system with regard to strategic and well-structured development plans by all governments.
The communiqué further reminded and appealed to the government to revisit the various recommendations made by the Prof. Fiadjoe Constitutional Review Commission, especially on the need for a national development plan.
It said based on observations, the Commission recommended that the constitution should be amended to include an entrenched position for the development of a national development plan for Ghana.
Again, it recommended that the national development plan should be comprehensive, long-term, strategic, multi-year and binding and enforceable at the instance of any person or institution.
The communiqué, therefore, noted that the Bishops were of a strong conviction that the implementation of these and other recommendations will be in the right direction.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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