As part of the activities to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the Servant of God Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery, Archbishop Emeritus of Tamale, Catholics in the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province will from today, May 16, 2019, begin a novena, in all Dioceses in the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province.
The dioceses are Tamale, Navrongo-Bolgatanga, Wa, Damongo and Yendi Dioceses.
The first day of the novena which is to be held in the respective Cathedrae, would be presided over the Local Ordinaries while the 2nd to 8th days would be integrated into Eucharistic Celebrations each day at 6pm. The novena would be held on specific themes which epitomizes the ministry and life of the late Cardinal.
In Tamale, however, the novena would be characterized by the movement of the Perpetual Light of Cardinal Dery which will begin from the Our Lady of Annunciation (OLA) Cathedral on the first day and taken round in turns to seven Churches in the Metropolis on each day.
As part of the event, Most Rev. Philip Naameh, Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, would lead Priests and the faithful in a devotion at the grave of the late Cardinal located inside the OLA Cathedral and perform other spiritual activities to kick-start the novena in the Archdiocese.
In the evening of May 24, 2019, the climax of the novena, Catholics from across the province are expected to converge in Tamale and process with candle lights from the Jubilee Park to the OLA Cathedral for the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and benediction which would be presided over at Most Rev. Peter Paul Angkyier, Bishop of Damongo Diocese with all Bishops from the province in attendance.
The centenary of the birth of the late Cardinal would be crowned with an open-air Pontifical Mass on May 25, 2019, at the Jubilee Park, Tamale, which is expected to be graced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, Chiefs, Bishops and a host of dignitaries. Several priests, religious and the faithful from across the country, would also be in attendance.
Early Life, Ministry and Death
Born on May 10, 1918, at Zimuopare in Ko Parish, near Nandom, in the Upper West Region, to fetish parents, Porekuu Dery converted to Catholicism and was baptized on Christmas Eve, 1932, and given the name, Peter. After his philosophical and theological studies at the Minor Seminary at Navrongo and St. Peter’s Major Seminary at Wiagha, in the Upper East Region, he was ordained priest on February 11, 1951, at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Nandom, by Bishop Gerald Bertrand, M.Afr., then Bishop of Tamale, becoming the first person of northern extraction to be ordained priest.
At the age of 41-years, Fr. Porekuu Dery became the first Bishop of Wa Diocese after only nine years as a priest. He later became the first African Bishop of Tamale in 1974 and also its first Archbishop in 1977 when it was elevated to the status of an Archdiocese.
He had previously served as Parochial Vicar of Nandom, Assistant Director Catholic Schools in Tamale Diocese, Vicar General of Tamale, Administrator of Tamale OLA Cathedral and Apostolic Administrator of Tamale Diocese for two years prior to being appointed Bishop.
During his tenure as President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference from 1982 to 1988, Cardinal Dery also served as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and also Coordinator of the Pan-African Council of the Laity.
He resigned as Archbishop on March 26, 1994, after attaining the canonical retirement age of 75 years. On March 24, 2006, he was elevated to the Cardinalate by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and installed Cardinal-Deacon four days later. He died on March 6, 2008, aged 89, and given a State funeral which took place at the newly built Tamale Sports Stadium. He was buried on April 1, 2008.
Beatification Cause
In June 2013, the Cause for the Beatification of the late Cardinal, that is, declaring him a Saint in the Catholic Church, was initiated with a Petition to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican. The Cause, which is being sponsored by the Tamale Archdiocese with support from other partners, involves gathering testimonies of the life, heroic virtues and reputation of holiness and intercessory powers, through interviews with eye witnesses who directly encountered the late Cardinal and other documentary evidence by a four-member Diocesan Tribunal.
On July 13, 2013, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued a “no objection” to the Petition, hence he was declared “Servant of God”, the first of four steps to Canonization in the Catholic Church which can only be initiated five years after ones death. The second, third and fourth steps is for one to be declared Venerable, Blessed and eventually, a Saint.
The Beatification Cause is in two phases; the first phases in Ghana is currently ongoing. When this is complete, it would be turned over to Rome for the second phase. If the application process is successful, the late Cardinal would be the first Catholic from Ghana to be made a Saint.
Affiliation to the Knights of Columbus
It is worth mentioning that the Servant of God, Peter Cardinal Porekuu Dery, a member of the Knights of Columbus to which the Knights and Ladies of Marshall is affiliated under the International Alliance of Catholic Knights. He was also a former Supreme Spiritual Director of the Knights of Marshall, a Catholic friendly Society which has branches spread across Ghana and in Togo, Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso, and London.