You are here: HomeNews2001 12 26Article 20532

General News of Wednesday, 26 December 2001

Source: gna

Bishop Lodonu commends govt for supporting Dr Chambas

The Most Reverend Francis Lodonu, Bishop of the Ho Diocese of the Catholic Church, has praised the government for supporting the candidature of Dr Ibn Chambas to become the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) saying it was a good sign of love being extended across political divides.

Bishop Lodonu was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Christmas Eve concerning the significance of the season to the current social, political and economic circumstances of the country.

Bishop Lodonu said Christmas remained relevant because of its theme of love and goodwill towards all. "Our religion is unique because it preaches that love should be extended to enemies and, therefore, makes Christmas a potent tonic for a country divided by politics," he stated.

He said some amount of elitism was creeping into churches as a result of which certain programmes were targeted at the affluent society to the neglect of the poor.

Bishop Lodonu however, said structures and programmes of mainline churches were built largely to serve the mass of the people.

He was of the opinion that churches should make greater contributions towards improving basic education in the rural areas rather than taking up university education.

He said moral values in the country were changing for the worst because of the power of the mass media channels to reach the people with corrupting influences faster and more often than the messages of the church.