Let’s find money to complete National Cathedral to avoid shame – Catholic Bishop

Most Reverend Gabriel Kumordzi, the Bishop of Keta-Akatsi Diocese of the Catholic Church has stated that it was imperative to find funds to complete the National Cathedral of Ghana project.

He observed that it would be a shame that the project is abandoned and for people to be pointed in its direction and to be told that this is the house of God that was planned but could not be executed.

He stressed in an interview with Joy News that with the decision to build it having been taken and work started, it was imperative to find funds to complete the project bearing in mind the economic realities.

“At this stage, National Cathedral has started already and so since it has started already, I am not at the stage of whether we need it or not. It has started, what I will say is how are we going to build it and finish it especially in this economic crisis, what can we do?

“We have to take a decision. The days of saying we don’t need it has passed now… can we leave it there like that with the foundation on and the building and walls are halfway and we remove all the things and expose it to the world?

“That this is the house which Ghana, or some people decided to build and they couldn’t finish and the Bible says that when they pass and see that, they will laugh at us,” he stressed.

The project has recently been mired in a raft of controversies among others corruption relating to payments made to the architect and issues of Parliamentary breaches and corporate governance issues.

North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who has been at the forefront of the exposures insists that the government has committed public funds in excess of 100 million dollars to the project.

Meanwhile, construction works on the Cathedral site have stalled due to the unavailability of funds.

A senior member of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Palmer-Buckle is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cathedral but is serving in his personal capacity.

Weeks ago, the head of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Bishop Naameh said there were other priorities government needed to focus on and the Cathedral was not one of them.