By Boakye Baafi
Asante Mampong (Ash) June 07, GNA-Most Reverend John Yaw Opoku-Agyeman, has been ordained as the new Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of the Konongo-Mampong, in the Ashanti region.
Most Rev. Opoku-Agyeman replaces Bishop Emeritus Osei Bonsu, the first Bishop of the Diocese, who resigned after obtaining the age of 75.
Bishop Emeritus Osei Bonsu served the Diocese for over 29 years.
Per the traditions of the Catholic Church, an Ordinary of a Diocese retires at the age of 75 years.
The episcopal ordination of Most Rev. Opoku-Agyeman was performed by Cardinal Henryk Mieczyslaw Jagodzinski, Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana.
It was attended by people from different faiths, and social, political, and traditional backgrounds across the country.
Rev. Opoku-Agyemang was the second Bishop of the Diocese, and this was the first time the episcopal ordination of a Catholic Bishop had been done in the Diocese.
Most Rev. John Opoku-Agyemang was born on August 15, 1957, at Kumawu in the Ashanti region to a Catholic family.
He is the fifth child in a family of 10 children.
He entered the St. Hubert’s Minor Seminary in Kumasi, in 1971for his minor seminary formation, during which he obtained his Ordinary and Advanced Levels
Certificates of education.
He proceeded to the St. Peter’s Regional Major Seminary in Pedu, Cape Coast, in 1978, where he did his philosophical studies.
In August 1980, he studied theology at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas, in the United States of America, where he obtained a Diploma in Clinical Pastoral Education and a master’s degree in divinity in 1983.
In August 1999, he took a two year-sabbatical leave from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and pursued doctoral studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the United States of America, where he obtained a Doctor of Ministry degree in Pastoral Theology in December 2001.
He was ordained a Catholic priest on January 22, 1984, by the Most Rev. Peter K. Sarpong at the St. Peter’s Cathedral for the then Kumasi Diocese.
In June 2009, he was appointed the first Rector of the St. Gregory the Great Provincial Major Seminary at Parkoso in Kumasi.
He served the seminary so devotedly that he endeared himself to the other formators, seminarians, staff, and the entire seminary community.
Most Rev. John Opoku-Agyemang was still forming future priests for the Church after the heart of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, at the St. Gregory the Great Provincial Major Seminary, Parkoso, Kumasi, when the Holy Father, Pope Francis, appointed him to be the second Bishop of the Konongo-Mampong Diocese on March 21, 2024.
GNA