BISHOP ABADAMLOORA BURIED (SPREAD, JAN 16, 2010)

THE body of Bishop Lucas Abadamloora, the late President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, have been buried at Bolgatanga.
The Most Reverend Lucas Abadamloora, who was also the Bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Wednesday, December 23, 2009, aged 71. He was the third Bishop of the Diocese and served from June 1994 till his death.
The body of the Bishop was interred inside the Sacred Heart Cathedral after a funeral mass attended by thousands of Roman Catholics and non-Catholics from far and near.
The solemn mass was occasionally interspersed with traditional war dance performances as a cultural expression of the flock the late bishop led.
There was a high turnout of other colleague bishops from both within and outside Ghana, as well as priests, nuns, and laypeople, who filled the church, where the funeral mass was held.
Also in attendance was the Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, Most Reverend Leon B. Kalenga, the President of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace in Rome, His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, the Most Reverend Philip Naameh, who was the main celebrant.
In his homily, Bishop Paul Bemile, the Catholic Bishop of Wa, said the late Bishop was prepared by the moral training he had in his formative years to confront the many hardships and challenges that came with his ministry.
He said the late Bishop worked tirelessly beyond the diocese and his death was an invitation to receive the recompense of Christ for his toil on earth.
Most Reverend Bemile recalled the late Bishop’s contribution to bringing peace to Bawku in particular and said the only tribute the people of the area could pay to the memory of the late Bishop was to live in peace.
Most Reverend Matthew Gyemfi, the Catholic Bishop of Sunyani, who read a tribute on behalf of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, recalled the enormous contributions of his deceased colleague to the fraternity and the Catholic Church as a whole and said Bishop Abadamloora worked hard and tirelessly to uplift the image of the Catholic Church in Ghana.
The Upper East Region Minister, Mr Mark Owen Woyongo, who stood in for the Vice President, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, and read a tribute on behalf of the government, praised the late Bishop Abadamloora for his peace-building efforts.
“It is recalled that he came on the scene at a time the church in the diocese had developed cracks along ethnic lines, which threatened its unity and oneness. Thankfully, his style of administration and fairness gradually restored the unity of the church and brought peace among the faithful,” he said.
According to the Vice President, who had on Friday participated in a vigil mass for the late Bishop, the deceased’s love for peace even extended beyond the boundaries of the church and that as the government, “we have watched with keen interest and profound gratitude his peace-building efforts among the Kusasis and Mamprusis in the Bawku conflict”.
“The role of the church under his leadership in helping the government to resolve the Bawku conflict will never be forgotten. Even though the conflict is still not fully resolved, he has blazed the trail, which his successor will be bound to follow”, the Vice President said.