The Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Coast held celebrations over the weekend to mark both the ongoing Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year and the Diamond Jubilee of the elevation of the Cape Coast Church to an Archdiocese.
Gabriel Asempa Antwi – Accra
The celebration, under the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope – Let Your Light Shine,” took place at St. Augustine’s College.
Ther Papal Special Envoy to the jubilee celebrations was Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, OFM, Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Durban in South Africa. Also present at the celebrations was Cardinal Peter Turkson, the current Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican. Cardinal Turkson, a priest of the Archdiocese of Cape Coast, Ghana, also served as Ordinary of the Archdiocese from 1992 to 2003.
Several other Ghanaian Bishops, led by the current Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, Charles Gabriel Palmer-Bucklem, graced the celebrations.
Delivering the Holy Father Pope Leo’s message to the faithful and the Church of Cape Coast, Special Envoy Cardinal Napier conveyed the Pope’s heartfelt congratulations and blessings to all in the Archdiocese of Cape Coast.
Grandmother of all Catholic Churches in Ghana
The celebrations further coincided with the 75th birthday of Archbishop Palmer-Buckle, who was ordained a priest in 1976.
Archbishop Palmer-Buckle told local media, earlier, that the Archdiocese of Cape Coast is “the great-grandmother of all the Catholic churches in Ghana.” He explained that many dioceses in Ghana were carved from Cape Coast. For this reason, the celebration was not just for Cape Coast alone.
The history of the Archdiocese of Cape Coast is, to a large extent, that also of the Church in the Gold Coast, later Ghana. The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) had therefore decided that this year’s event be celebrated by the entire Catholic Church in Ghana.
