President Mahama supports bid to make Cardinal Dery a Saint

President John Dramani Mahama on Monday expressed his administration’s willingness to support the Catholic Church in their bid to begin a process of making late Peter Cardinal Dery a Saint.

He said: “Your bid to start the process of writing to the Pope to to make the late Peter Cardinal Porukuu Dery a Saint would not only boost the position of the church, but would also once again place the country in a religious prominence in the world.”

President Mahama gave this assurance when Archbishop Philip Naameh, Catholic Bishop of the Tamale Archdiocese led a delegation to call on him at the Flagstaff House, Kanda.

The delegation was at the presidency to inform President Mahama of the fifth anniversary celebration of the death of Peter Cardinal Dery, which occurred on March 6, 2008 and to outline some of the programmes for the celebration.

President Mahama said the Catholic Church had been a worthy partner in the areas of education, health, water and sanitation and government would continue to collaborate with the church to achieve her development goals.

He appealed to Catholics all over the country to lend their support to government in all sectors of development and gave the assurance that government would play its roles responsibly to ensure a perfect collaboration.

Archibishop Naameh said apart from the fifth anniversary celebration of the late Cardinal, the church would also launch the “Cardinal Dery Foundation” on June 14 and 15 in his honour.

He said the church would begin the process of making him a Saint by first writing to the Vatican for the procedure to begin on July 15, which he believed would meet the kind approval of the Catholic hierarchy.

Source: GNA