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Ghanaian advocates for peace, AIDS prevention

By Laura Salinger

In an effort to develop meaningful relationships between parishes in the United States and parishes overseas, the Diocese of Madison has developed a unique relationship with the Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga in Ghana as part of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Global Solidarity Partnership program. To further solidify this effort, the Diocese of Madison recently hosted a visit from Rev. Lucas Abadamloora, the bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese.

Abadamloora has been a major leader in peace efforts between Muslims and Christians in northern Ghana, as well as in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In a recent interview with The Madison Times, Abadamloora explained what led him into the Catholic Church and what prompted him to become an advocate for peace and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Abadamloora was born in the village of Chiana in Navrongo, Ghana, on Dec. 22, 1938. He was the first of seven children born to Charles and Joanna Abadamloora, who were among the first recipients of the Catholic faith in Chiana. For his first eight years of life, Abadamloora joined the other village boys in learning the catechism, fetching water and wash plates for the missionaries, and helping his father farm.

Abadamloora’s father was both a catechist and a farmer. Although village tradition called for keeping the eldest son at home to farm, he was determined that all his children, both female and male, would go to school.

"My father made sure all of his children went to school," Abadamloora said. "The villagers thought he was a madman. It was new to send all of your children to school. They criticized him greatly for sending his daughters to school."

Abadamloora started school at St. Paul’s Primary Boarding School in Navrongo in 1948 and then attended St. Mary’s Middle School for two years. From 1956 to 1962, he studied at St. Charles Borromeo Minor Seminary in Tamale and then at the government secondary school there. He studied for six years at St. Victor’s Major Seminary in Tamale and was ordained a priest in 1968.

Abadamloora said he knew most of his life that his place was in the church. His father, too. "I knew that one of us would probably become a church person," Abadamloora said.

Abadamloora became a bishop and named to the Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga in 1994. He just recently celebrated his 10th anniversary as bishop.

When Abadamloora became a  bishop, the HIV/AIDS pandemic was breaking out in Ghana. Almost immediately, Abadamloora made HIV/AIDs prevention, education, and care one of his major goals. He brought CRS into his diocese to help administer care and prevention services.

"We felt we must do something about it," Abadamloora said. "We started a program with CRS in 1998. They went to villages and tried to identify the patients to counsel."

In many of the villages, HIV/AIDS counseling was a challenge. People afflicted with AIDS were often avoided and treated much like people with leprosy had been treated in the Middle Ages, Abadamloora said. Superstitions built up around the disease; some villagers thought it could be spread simply by touch.

"We tried to create awareness about what the disease is," Abadamloora said. "It took a long time for people to recognize it as a disease."

Currently, Abadamloora’s diocese and CRS administer a food program and a care program for HIV/AIDS patients, as well as prevention programs.

"We are happy to be involved in this ministry," Abadamloora said. "It is a service to humanity."

Another of Abadamloora’s major undertakings is his peace effort with Muslims in Northern Ghana. Violence between Muslims and Christians, which has long been a problem there, stems from a very small group of radical Muslims, he says.

"Muslims burnt a Christian church," Abadamloora said. "There have been repeated incidents of violence between Christians and Muslims. When I became bishop, it became my wish that we should avoid these radical Muslims. In the North we are poorer, and we cannot afford violence to destroy the resources we have."

Yet Abadamloora soon realized that a majority of Muslims in Northern Ghana wanted peace as well and he began to form a relationship with a leader of the Muslim religion in his area.

"I became friends with the chief Imam," Abadamloora said. "We started by wishing each other well. This developed into a tight relationship. In 2000, we proposed that Muslims and Christians come together."

The result of the two groups coming together was a peace march through Northern Ghana which attracted nearly 5,000 people. Abadamloora hopes to hold another march attracting even more people and says he will continue his efforts to develop peace between Muslims and Christians.

"Our people in Ghana, they are the same people," he said. "Some are Christians, some are Muslims, but they are the same people. If, in the name of religion, we cannot live together in peace, then that is a false religion. The Crusades are a matter of the past to me."

Abadamloora’s visit is only the beginning of a relationship with the Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga, says Diocese of Madison’s Office for Justice and Peace Director J. Mark Brinkmoeller. The diocese is helping with CRS’s soybean project, which assists female farmers in Ghana. Currently, the diocese is raising money to buy donkeys for the project. But the relationship is about much more than money, Brinkmoeller said. "This isn’t primarily about the transfer of funds,” he says. “We want it to be deeper than that. We want it to be about our faith. We have a lot to learn from the people in Ghana."