Lets all work to curb social vices among the Youth

By Godfred A. Polkuu, GNA 

Bolgatanga, Sept. 25, GNA – Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications has called on the laity in the Roman Catholic Church to effectively play their roles to curb social vices among the youth in the church.

He observed that the laity, represented more than 95 percent of the membership of the church, and it was “the responsibility of the church to curb social vices is more on me and you than my Lord Bishop. I must lay the cards bare, right at the onset that the laity has not done too well when it comes to supporting the call to evangelize and to help curb these social vices”

He said the laity had largely confined their duty to the clergy, and reminded them that “the command to save souls as established in Acts 1:8 is to all and sundry.” adding that, “the world has come to accept that as the Great Commission; which is the last of Christ’s commands before His Ascension.”

Mr Ashigbey, who is an Engineer and former Managing Director of Graphic Communications, made the call when he spoke on the theme: “The role of the Church and the family in curbing social vices among the Youth of Today,” at the Third Biennial Diocesan Laity Congress of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese held in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital.

The CEO said the Church had fundamental roles to play in ensuring that it helped to prevent and check social vices among the youth in several ways including evangelism and pastoral ministries, and emphasized that “the Church should strive to minimize or eliminate the effects of the causes of social vices.”

Mr Ashigbey who cited Cardinal William J. Levada in his presentation to the International Theological-Pastoral Congress on the Family in which the Cardinal stated: “I hope to show that the Catechism itself, and in new way the just-published new Compendium of the Catechism, should be an indispensable piece of furniture in the home of each Catholic family, in order to fulfil the mission it has in God’s plan as the domestic church.”

The CEO added that from the moment of pre-infant baptism instruction till about five years into marriage, the Church should have in place systematic programmes which would gradually turn children into matured disciples of Christ.

These programmes, he said should focus on the family as the domestic church, and they should aim at making parents “apostles among disciples,” and that “such an approach when properly implemented might help to minimize the occurrences of broken homes.

Most Reverend Bishop Alfred Agyenta, Bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese and President of the Diocesan Laity Council, said the church and the family were closely linked that they could not be separated without causing harm to the nature of the church, and noted that the church was a “communion of families” while the family was “a domestic church” where the Christian faith lived concretely.

Touching on the roles of the church and family in the welfare of the youth, Bishop Agyenta said the church, as an institution, must provide space for the youth in their lives and activities and must make conscious effort to provide for the welfare of the youth.

Most Revered Agyenta who charged the church to allocate resources to the youth, explained that “young people are expensive not because they are spendthrifts, but because they are a form of investment,” and called on parish managers to yearly include the youth in budgets allocation.

On family, the Bishop said “A solid Christian family has what it takes to sanitize habits, vices, attitudes that are brought home from the public square by its young ones, while a lousy one is a breeding ground and laboratory for experimentation for these social vices,” and urged the gathering to build strong Christian families animated by Christian culture.

Mr Irenious Angso Kuulanang the Diocesan Laity Chairman, said the occasion offered them the opportunity to renew contacts and discuss problems of mutual interests with delegates from member perishes and diocesan societies, and called on them to avoid divisions and factionalisms in the church, insisting that “Christ is one.”

He said the Catholic Church was universal and apostolic, “our lives as Christians should be governed and controlled by love.GNA

Source: GNA Story (http://www.ghananewsagency.org/social/catholics-urged-to-halt-vices-among-youth-139130) 
Published: 2018-09-25 18:09:55
© Ghana News Agency

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