Accra, Ghana, May 25, 2009 / 12:24 pm
A leading priest in Ghana has proposed new initiatives to counter the exodus of young people to sects. His proposals include a local edition of the compendium of the Catechism.
The Italian-born Fr. Martino Corazzin told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that young people are leaving the Catholic Church to join various sects that have rapidly grown in the last 25 years. In that time the number of Ghanaians belonging to independent Pentecostal churches, which combine traditional magical beliefs with Christianity, has risen by 400 percent.
Fr. Corazzin, who has worked in Ghana since 1991, said an ACN-sponsored Ghanaian edition of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church will help stop the exodus by allowing youth to know their faith more deeply.
“At a catechists’ meeting I was told, ‘Many of the youth you baptized two years ago – they don’t come anymore they attend other churches,’” he said. “Many sects are mushrooming – and they’re a threat to the faithful who are Catholic.”
Reportedly, 8,000 copies of the Compendium have already been distributed, with another 25,000 due to go out over the next month.