Ghanaian named Cardinal a few months ago by Pope dies in Rome

Former Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wa Most Rev. Bishop Richard Kuuia Baawobr, who was named Cardinal in May by Pope Francis I, has passed away.

Most Rev. Bishop Baawobr died on Sunday, November 27, according to an official communication issued by the Secretary General of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), Father André-Léon Simonart.

He was taken in an ambulance from the Generalate (Missionaries of Africa in Rome) to the Gemelli Hospital at 5.45pm but was pronounced dead nearly an hour later.

“May Richard rest in the peace of his Lord whom he so generously served,” the official communication said.

Cardinal Kuuia Baawobr has been unwell and was admitted at the Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome shortly before a Vatican ceremony in which he was to receive a red biretta.

He was, however, conferred a Cardinal while in hospital in Rome.

Bishop Kuuia Baawobr became the third Bishop from Ghana to be made a Cardinal after he was named among 21 by Pope Francis in May.

• Pope names Catholic Bishop of Wa a Cardinal

Before he was appointed Bishop on Wa in February 2016, he had served as first Assistant General of the Superior General of the Missionaries of Africa for a six-year term; in May 2010, he was elected the first African Superior General of the Catholic Congregation that was founded in 1868.

Pope Francis in October appointed him to the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

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