This is not the time for a National Cathedral – President of Catholic Bishops’ Conference

President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Most Rev. Philip Naameh, has joined calls by many Ghanaians for the government not to prioritise the Nationals Cathedral of Ghana project.

According to the Archbishop, building a National Cathedral should not be a priority for the country, given the current hardships Ghanaians are going through, newswiregh.com.

“Naturally, at this time, I will agree with you and many other critics that when you look at the economy and things that had to be destroyed in order that the Cathedral may come on, we can say that it is definitely not a priority,” Archbishop Naameh is quoted to have said in an interview with NewsWire GH.

He further stated that since the National Cathedral was President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s promise to God, the president was expected to find the money for the project rather than using taxpayers’ money for it.

“The whole thing started with the president who said he had a vision, and he made a promise to God that if he was elected president, this is what he would do for God. And so everybody expected that he was going to look for the money, and he has also promised that he was not going to use the taxpayer’s money for it. So, these are facts that are on the table, but I wouldn’t want to comment on them now.

“But to say that at this present stage it is not a priority, that one I can say. We will prefer to be quiet until we receive the statutes which will contain the management and all that which we have requested for,” he added.

The President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, who is also the Archbishop of Tamale, clarified Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral, is not representing the church but was selected by President Akufo-Addo to be part of the project.

The government has come under a lot of criticism by Ghanaians for its insistence on going on with the National Cathedral project even though the country was going through a lot of challenges. Some Ghanaians are saying that the National Cathedral project is Akufo-Addo’s personal promise to God and that there should not be a priority for the government.