From Vincent Mensah
The St. Joseph’s Catholic Church at Elmina built in the 1880s, has been elevated to the status of a Minor Basilica.
His Eminence Ivan Cardinal Dias, Prefect for the Congregation of the Evangelisation of Peoples, said the elevation was at the request of His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast.
It was approved by Pope Benedict XVI and the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, headed by His Eminence Francis Cardinal Arinze on March 11, 2007.
The announcement on the new status of the Church was made at a Holy Mass at Church on April 29, 2007.
Cardinal Dias presided over the Mass with Cardinal Appiah Turkson, Archbishop George Kocherry, Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, and Bishops John Martin Darko of Sekondi-Takoradi, Joseph Francis Essien of Wiawso, Matthais Nketsiah, Auxiliary Bishop of Cape Coast with 24 other Priests.
Cardinal Appiah Turkson read the Papal Bull elevating the Church to the status of Minor Basilica and explained the obligations imposed on it by the elevation while Sir Anthony Annan, Knight of St. Gregory the Great, translated it into Akan.
Elmina is the third Minor Basilica coming after St. Peter’s Minor Basilica erected on June 29, 2005 in Kumasi and Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Minor Basilica in Navrongo erected in June last year.
Cardinal Appiah Turkson said the significance and meaning of a Basilica is that it should be the centre of liturgical and Pastoral activities, adding that it should stimulate the participation of the lay faithful in various forms of religious programmes.
By the elevation, the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Peter Adoko Enchill, now assumes the title of a Rector.
Cardinal Dias on behalf of the Pope, presented a chalice to the new Minor Basilica.
In his homily, the Cardinal said the elevation of St. Joseph was a gift to the Church, an honour to the people of Elmina and to the whole of Ghana, stressing that “Catholics must live the faith of the Church by carrying the Cross of Christ to several places.”
He prayed for the repose of the souls of the early missionaries, recalling how Rev. Frs. Augustine Moreau and Eugene Murat, had re-sown the seeds of Catholicism in Ghana in the 1880’s.
He asked the congregation to attach great importance to the Holy Eucharist, pray for their Bishops and Priests as well as the Holy Father.
The St. Joseph Minor Basilica Pastoral Council presented special gifts to Cardinal Dias and Archbishop Kocherry to commemorate their visit to the Church.
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