This year’s annual pilgrimage of the Archdiocese of Cape Coast on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was honored by the presence of the Newly appointed Apostolic Nuncio to South Africa and Lesotho, formerly of Ghana. He had been invited to preside over the Mass before being transferred from Ghana to South Africa and Lesotho. In his homily, he emphasized the need to be conscious of our Christian life as one of pilgrimage. To live it as such, Catholics must strive to emulate the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which itself, having formed the heart of Jesus, is formed by the Sacred Heart of her Son. He called this the great paradox. He called on Christ’s faithful in the Archdiocese to respond positively to the call to prayer by the Pope, as the year 2024 has been declared a year of prayer in preparation for 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope

The event which drew thousands of Catholics from the Central Region to Jukwa Krobo, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sanctuary, was also to launch the Diamond Jubilee of the Archdiocese – 75years since Cape Coast was established an Archdiocese (1950-2025) – and to participate prayerfully in the preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year of the universal Church. In celebration with the Apostolic Nuncio were The Most Rev Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, and the Most Rev. Matthias Kobina Nketsiah, Emeritus Archbishop of Cape Coast, and a nearly-all priests working in the archdiocese, about two hundred of them, diocesan and religious. A good number of religious brothers and sisters were also present to pray with the Church.

This annual pilgrimage is to honour the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, patroness of the Archdiocese, and to seek her maternal intercession for the Archdiocese and all who constitute it and the universal Church.

The occasion was used by the Archdiocese to thank the Apostolic Nuncio for his service to the Church in Ghana and to bid him farewell as he leaves for a new Apostolic work as Nuncio to South Africa and Lesotho.