Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese Gets New Bishop
THE NAVRONGO-Bolgatanga Diocese of the Catholic Church has a new bishop who takes over from Most Reverend Lucas Abadamloora, who passed away on December 23, 2009.
Fifty two year old Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta is a native of Wiaga in the Builsa District of the Upper East region.
Preaching the sermon during the ordination ceremony, Most Reverend Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Bishop of Konogo-Mampong and President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference challenged the new bishop to ensure that more souls will be won for the Kingdom of God under his leadership and not lord his position over the people he is to lead.
He added that in many cases when people are elevated to higher positions, they become tyrants and scare away the very people they are supposed to serve and comfort.
'Be a father to them, offering them an inviting and welcoming face all the time. Visit your flock in their parishes, towns and villages as often as you can and stay with them for as long as you can. Let them feel that you are one of them by eating and drinking whatever they offer you during your pastoral visits. Please listen to their concerns and needs. Indeed you may not be able to solve most of them, but let them feel that you care about their plight,' he advised.
The Minister of Chieftaincy and Culture, Asum Ahensah who represented Vice President John Mahama condemned factionalism in churches saying it does not create a conducive ground for worship.
In his view this rather creates breakaway groups that have paved the way for quark pastors who take advantage of the people who go to them for comfort and spiritual support.
It is time for the Church and genuine ministers of God in this country to start flushing out the quark ones among them to avoid a general disgrace to all pastors, he added.
Bishop Agyenta for his part assured the parish members of his preparedness to serve in humility and be a father, giving them encouragement whenever they go through trying times.
He called for unity among members of the various parishes in the Diocese and asked that members of the Catholic Church and Christians in general should be each others' keeper by offering advice and other material support to one another.
Until his election on April 5 by Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop Agyenta was a lecturer and formator at St. Victor's Major Seminary in Tamale and St. Augustine Millennium Seminary.
His episcopal ordination and installation makes him the fourth bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese. The diocese was started by three early missionaries in Navrongo in 1906.
From 1974 to 1979, Bishop Agyenta was a student at the Notre Dame Minor Seminary Secondary School then proceeded to Nandom Secondary School in the Upper West region from 1979 to 1981 for his Advanced Level programme.
After studying Philosophy and Theology at St. Victor's Major Seminary from 1981 to 1987, he obtained a Diploma in Theology from the University of Ghana and thereafter was ordained a priest in 1988 for the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese, where he had his first appointment as Curate until 1991.
He travelled to Rome in Italy for further studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and returned home in 1995 with the Licentiate in Biblical Studies. He was later appointed a lecturer and formator at the St. Victor's Major Seminary in Tamale, where he worked from 1995 to 2000.
The new bishop currently holds a Doctorate Degree in Theology from the Catholic University of Louvain in Leuven.
From Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga