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The Society of African Missions (SMA) has launched its 150th anniversary of the evangelisation of Africa at a Eucharistic celebration at the Queen of Peace Church at Madina, Accra.
The Mass was celebrated by Very Rev. Fr. Hope Klutsey, First Ghanaian Regional Superior of the SMA in Ghana.
Fr. Klutsey, paid a glowing tribute to the founder, Bishop Melchoir de Marion Bresillac, whom he described as “a remarkable Missionary Bishop who gave himself for the sake of the gospel.”
He said one of the visions of the Founder was to train local clergy and establish a local hierarchy that would be responsible for the Missions, with the European acting only as assistants.
Bishop Bresillac died in Freetown, Sierra Leone in June 1859, six weeks after arriving in the country.
Fr. Klutsey said the death of the Founder rather encouraged more missionaries to come to West Africa.
The first SMA Fathers, August Moreau and Eugene Murat landed at Elmina, in the Gold Coast, in May 1880.
More Missionaries followed notwithstanding the hostile climate, hardship, frustration, poverty, sickness and death, Fr. Klutsey said.
The Superior noted that the life-style of the Missionaries who travelled from village to village on foot, staying overnight with the people, enjoyed their food and tried to speak their languages, made them distinct Missionaries.
Though evangelisation was their main objective, they contributed enormously to the development of the people by putting the structures for Deaneries, Parishes, Churches, Schools, Colleges, Seminaries and Novitiates, dispensaries, Hospitals, water and electricity.
Among the Colleges and Hospitals opened by the SMAs were St. Augustine’s at Cape Coast, Our Lady of Apostles, Sisters Convent at Elmina and Eikwe Hospital in Nzema East.
Fr. Klutsey commended the early Missionaries for their sacrifice and dedication in the erection of the Ecclesiastical Province of the Catholic Church in Ghana, and expressed gratitude to the people of Ghana for allowing the SMAs to have a share in these achievements.
From Michael Nyaku
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