Biography
Richard Kuuia Baawobr was born on 21 June 1959 in Tom-Zendagangn, in the Nandom District of Ghana. He attended the village primary school, St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary, and Nandom Secondary School. He entered the St. Victor major seminary in Tamale in 1979 for his philosophical studies. In 1981 he joined the Society of Missionaries of Africa and continued his preparation for the priesthood. From 1981 to 1982 he fulfilled his novitiate in Friborg, Switzerland. From 1982 to 1987, he completed his theological studies at the Missionary Institute London.
On 5 December 1986 he made his religious vows at St. Edward’s College in London and he was ordained a priest on 18 July 1987.
From 1987 to 1991 he was parish vicar in Livulu in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. From 1991 to 1996 he studied exegesis at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and Ignatian spirituality at Le Chatelard in Lyon, France, earning a licentiate in sacred scripture and a doctorate in Biblical theology. From 1996 to 1999 he was his order’s formator in Kahangala, Tanzania. From 1999 to 2004 he was director of their Toulouse formation house. From 2004 to 2010 he was first assistant general of the order.
In 2010 he was elected to a six-year term as the order’s superior general, the first African to hold that position,[2] serving as well as Vice Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Institute for Arab-Islamic Studies (PISAI).[1] He was chosen by the Union of Superiors General to participate in the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family in October 2015.
On 17 February 2016, Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Wa in Ghana.[1] He received his episcopal consecration on 7 May 2016 from Cardinal Peter Turkson.[3] He is the first African to occupy that position.
On 4 July 2020 he was appointed a member and consultor of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
In harmony with the Ghanaian Episcopate, he has repeatedly expressed his opposition to claims by the LGBT+ community. He praised the draft law, presented in 2021 to the Parliament, entitled Promotion of the correct sexual human rights and family values of Ghana which provides for an increased penalty for intimate acts other than heterosexual or for public behavior different from those socially admitted and accepted on the basis of their natural sex or on the basis of the dominant sexual inclination (heterosexual). Despite strong criticism from various international organizations, bishop Baawobr invited the president of the Parliament to proceed with the discussion of the text without yielding to any pressure. These are his words: “Thank you for having responded with clear determination to the Australian High and to others that the Marriage Commissioner in Ghanaian customary law is between a man and a woman and not the one promoted by the LGBT+ community”.
On 30 July 2022, he was elected president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) on July 30 at in plenary assembly in Accra.[8] He is the first Ghanaian to hold that position.
On 29 May 2022, Pope Francis announced he would make Baawobr a cardinal at a consistory scheduled for 27 August.[9] On that day Pope Francis made him a cardinal priest and assigned him the titular church of Santa Maria Immacolata di Lourdes a Boccea.[10] Though he had traveled to Rome to attend the consistory, Baawobr was taken ill and did not attend.[11] He remained in the hospital for several days.
He is the third Ghanaian to become a cardinal, after Peter Turkson and Peter Porekuu Dery.
