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Your Eminences,

Your Excellencies,

I send you greetings of grace and peace from the RECOWA Secretariat in Abuja.

At this beginning of the month of November, the month for praying for our deceased brothers and sisters, I wish you God’s blessings and pray that he grants you graces of rebirth, fruitfulness, fresh initiatives and perseverance in your ministries.

As usual, I wish to keep you abreast with the major happenings within the conference. In the last two months our conference has witnessed a few events. These include:

  1. West African Youth Days

From 7 to 12 September 2026, the maiden edition of the West African Youth Days took place in Accra, Ghana.  The event recorded a total participation of 2,994 persons from 13 countries across the West African region with 22 Bishops. The host country, Ghana, recorded the highest participation with 2,022 participants, while participation from the other countries was as follows: Côte d’Ivoire (284), Guinea (150), Benin (130), Burkina Faso (117), Nigeria (69), Niger (60), Senegal (49), Togo (46), Mali (34), Liberia (22), Gambia (6), Sierra Leone (5) and 22 Bishops. Three countries were absent namely Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mauritania.

The highpoint of the event was a direct video message from the Holy Father Pope Leo to the West African Youths. Other direct video messages came from the Prefect for the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development and from the President of SECAM.

 We seize this opportunity to thank you for the support you gave to the youths who came from your dioceses. We express our sincere gratitude to those who financed the indigent youths to help them participate in this epochal event. We equally thank the Catholic Church in Ghana especially the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference. We cannot forget CAFOD, USCCB and the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development for their generous support for the event.

  • Capacity building Workshop for Directors of Communications of the RECOWA Region

The Reunion of Episcopal Conferences of West Africa (RECOWA) organised its first regional training workshop for Directors of Communications from 12 to 16 October 2026 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Held under the theme “Synergy and Communion: Uniting Our Voices, Strengthening Our Tools,” the workshop brought together 19 participants, including Communication Officers from eleven Episcopal Conferences representing the sixteen member countries RECOWA.

  • Capacity building Workshop for Leaders of the Laity Council of the RECOWA Region

From 25 to 29 October 2026 RECOWA organized capacity building training on advocacy for peace for all the leaders of the National Laity Councils in the region. It took place in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. All the countries of RECOWA were represented apart from Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. 50 delegates participated in the programme. The first phase of the programme began on the 22nd with the meeting of Regional Executive Officers with the presidents of each national laity councils of the region. This provided opportunity for the participants to share experiences of best practices, difficulties and challenges. With this training we can say that the Regional Laity Council of West Africa has come to stay.

  • Towards the 2027 Synodal Assemblies

In our last month’s information to the bishops, we recalled that the year 2027 is marked out by the universal Church for diocesan, national, regional and continental assemblies on the evaluation of the emerging paths from the implementation of synodality as the new way of life for the church. The first half of 2027 is dedicated to diocesan assemblies while the second half is for the national or regional assemblies.

The General Secretariat of Synod has published another document titled “Recollecting, the preparation of the local Church’s evaluation assembly: Notes for Bishops and synodal teams.” This document is found on the website of the General Secretariat of synod. We urge each diocese and national /Inter-territorial conferences to begin the preparation for their own synodal assembly by setting up the diocesan synodal teams.

  • Meeting of the Presidential Council

The last meeting of the Presidential Council of RECOWA for the year is scheduled to hold this month in Koforidua, Ghana from 17 (Arrival) -20 (Departure). The 1st Vice President of RECOWA, Most Rev. Joseph Afrifah-Agyekum has accepted to host this meeting gratuitously for the Conference in his diocese.

  • 13th Standing Committee of RECOWA in Bissau

The 13th Standing Committee of RECOWA will come up in Guinea Bissau from 3rd (arrival) to 8 (departure) February 2027. All the Presidents of national and interterritorial conferences as well as the Presidents of RECOWA Episcopal Commissions should kindly reserve this date in their diaries and if possible, already pick their flight tickets.

  • Conclusion

Your Eminences, your Excellences, we thank you for your support and understanding. Most dioceses have made their annual financial contribution for this year. We are happy for this because without you we cannot function well. I still wish to remind those who have not yet made theirs to remember RECOWA in their budgeting. We wish you God’s abundant blessings.

Rev. Fr. Vitalis Anaehobi

Secretary General of RECOWA

Père Paul DAH
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