Speaking on Wednesday when the President of Benin, Patrice Athanase Talon paid a day’s working visit to Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said, “We should endeavour to establish direct flights between Accra and Cotonou to facilitate the movement of persons and goods. We should further try to establish direct shipping lines, linking Accra to Cotonou, to facilitate trade between us. We need to push for the Sealink Shipping Project, an ECOWAS initiative, to help link our two countries.”

“With West Africa’s population set to reach some 500 million people in 20 years time, there are immense opportunities to bring prosperity to our region with hard work, enterprise and creativity,” the President added as an indication of the prospects for the sub-region.

Revitalizing the PJCC

President Akufo-Addo, however bemoaned the fact that only one meeting of the Permanent Joint Commission of Co-operation (PJCC), has been held, despite the good relations that exist between the countries.

A preliminary Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in 2016, after Benin requested assistance in the exploitation and exploration of hydrocarbons, reactivating the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation.

Other areas of cooperation, per the MoU, include fisheries, security, communication and education, among other sectors.

President Nana Akufo-Addo stressed that, there is the need to “reconvene another session of the PJCC, and I propose that we hold the next meeting in Cotonou as soon as possible.”

“Not only will the PJCC serve as a platform for enriching commercial relations between our countries, it will also facilitate the implementation of regional instruments such as the Common External Tariff of ECOWAS,” he said.

He also assured that, Ghana will continue to co-operate with Benin within other multilateral frameworks, such as the Volta Basin Authority, to promote and safeguard the equitable sharing of common water resources of the Authority.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Francis made similar comments when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires but his remarks to reporters on a plane returning from a Middle East trip were the first he has made since becoming pope.

“Celibacy is not a dogma,” he said in answer to a question about whether the Catholic Church could some day allow priests to marry as they can in some other Christian Churches.

“It is a rule of life that I appreciate very much and I think it is a gift for the Church but since it is not a dogma, the door is always open,” he said.

The Church teaches that a priest should dedicate himself totally to his vocation, essentially taking the Church as his spouse, in order to help fulfill its mission.

However while priestly celibacy is a tradition going back around 1,000 years, it is not considered dogma, or an unchangeable piece of Church teaching.

There has been pressure for change, particularly in the wake of recent sexual abuse scandals with proponents of optional celibacy in the Church arguing that sexual frustrations could drive some priests to sexually abuse children.

But the Church has rejected this argument, saying that paedophilia, whether in the Church or outside of it, is carried out by people with psychological problems.

Priests are allowed to marry in the Anglican and other Protestant churches as well as in the Orthodox Church.

Source: Reuters

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The women, who all live in Italy, described the “devastating suffering” caused by the church’s ban on priests having sex and marrying.

“We love these men and they love us,” they said in their letter published on the authoritative website Vatican Insider.

“With humility, we place at your feet our suffering so that something can change, not just for us but for the good of the whole Church,” they added in the message, signed with their first names and an initial of their last names, but with several phone numbers.

Priestly celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church, while not a unchangeable dogma, is a tradition going back more than 1,000 years.

In recent decades the Vatican has come under pressure to make celibacy optional and allow priests to marry, with supporters saying that this would help ease the acute shortage of priests in many areas.

The women asked the pope to “bless our love,” adding that few people could understand the “devastating suffering lived by a woman who has a strong love for a priest”.

The Church teaches that a priest should dedicate himself totally to his vocation, essentially taking the Church as his spouse, in order to help fulfil its mission.

But the women told the pope that their men would be able to serve the Church “with greater passion” if they were supported by a woman who loves them and children.

This was far better for the priests and the Church, they argued in the letter sent to the Vatican, than “a life of continued clandestineness, with the frustration of a love that is not complete”.

The women asked to meet the pope to explain the plight “tearing apart our souls” because the couples were faced with the alternatives of either the men leaving the priesthood or carrying on the relationships in secret.

Proponents of optional celibacy in the Church have linked the sexual abuse of children by priests to its celibacy rule, saying that it could stem from sexual frustrations.

But the Church has rejected this argument, saying that paedophilia, whether in the Church or outside of it, is carried out by people with psychological problems.

Priests are allowed to marry in the Anglican and other Protestant churches as well as in the Orthodox Church.

Source: Reuters.com

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