New Bishop for Ghana Resides in Brooklyn

By Marie Elena Giossi

Father Dominic Yeboah Nyarko, pastoral associate at St. Columba Church, Marine Park, begins this new year celebrating a double blessing – being recently appointed to the episcopacy and being named the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Techiman in his native Ghana.

The Vatican announced Pope Benedict XVI’s selection of Bishop-elect Nyarko on Dec. 28. Word quickly spread in his home Diocese of Sunyani and his parish, St. Paul’s, in his home village of Nsuta. Announcements were also made at St. Columba’s weekend Masses, Dec. 29-30.

Marie Elena Giossi Photo 

Bishop DiMarzio and Bishop-elect Dominic Yeboah Nyarko

On Jan. 4, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio welcomed the bishop-elect to his office at the Chancery and presented him with his first purple zucchetto to denote his new status.

“As soon as he heard, he invited me. He was happy to share the joy with me,” said Bishop-elect Nyarko, who is still surprised by this honor.

“He told me he’ll support me with prayers and that I shouldn’t be nervous. He advised me and really encouraged me.”

The new prelate had no idea he was being considered for such an assignment until Dec. 19, his birthday. When he returned to St. Columba’s Rectory after celebrating his 54th birthday with priest-friends, there was a DHL Express letter waiting for him.

“I opened it and the Apostolic Nuncio (to Ghana, Archbishop George Kocherry) wrote telling me the pope wanted to appoint me the first bishop of Techiman,” he recalled.

Two days later, the archbishop telephoned but Father Nyarko was still praying about his response. After talking to the archbishop, he sent an affirmative reply.

The archbishop announced the creation of the new diocese and named its first bishop at a gathering of priests and Religious from the Sunyani Diocese in Techiman on Dec. 28.

Since then, the bishop-elect’s cell phone hasn’t stopped ringing, day or night. As of Jan. 5, he had only 50 minutes left on his 600-minute per month cell phone plan.

While he received calls from around the globe, the person the newly named bishop was most happy to speak with was ?his mother, Mary, who was shocked. “She couldn’t understand how they’re giving me this big position,” he said, smiling.

He explained to her, “The Lord appointed me and He will give me the strength I need.”

He also knows his father, who died last year, is watching over him. His father was “a devout Catholic who traveled 12 miles every Sunday to receive the Eucharist” and helped erect a chapel in Nsuta. His father prayed one of his eight children – five sons and three daughters – “would decide to follow the Lord.”

Bishop-elect Nyarko did not always aspire to be a priest. After receiving a basic education in his village, he worked on his family’s cocoa farm for six years.

Encouraged by his father’s faith and inspired by a former seminarian, at age 23 he entered St. Hubert Minor Seminary, Kumasi, in 1977. Upon completion of his studies, he took philosophy and theology courses at St. Peter’s Regional Seminary, Pedu, in 1984.

Ordained to the priesthood for the Sunyani Diocese on July 21, 1990, by the late Bishop James Owusu, he has served as a parish priest, spiritual director of the minor seminary, diocesan vocations director, and he attended the Ghana Institute of Management of Public Administration for studies in public administration and financial management.

Four years ago, he came to Brooklyn intending to help at St. Columba for one year. After getting a feel for the parish, he decided to stay and pursue his master’s degree in family counseling at Fordham University. He planned to return to Ghana after commencement exercises this coming May.

Now he will not only have to adjust to a new role in the Church, but the bishop-elect will face the challenge of building a new diocese. The Diocese of Techiman covers 8,652 square miles and is home to 695,826 people in the Brong-Ahafo region of central Ghana. Carved from the Sunyani and Konogo-Mampong dioceses, the Techiman Diocese consists of seven civil districts, namely Techiman, the capital district and major marketing center, Kintampo North, Kintampo South, Nkoranza, Atebubu, Sene and Pru. The new diocese has 31 priests and 23 Religious serving 79,645 Catholics in 13 parishes.

As bishop, his first objective is to travel throughout the diocese and “see what’s prevailing.” Most people in the Brong-Ahafo region are farmers, who grow subsistence and cash crops, including cocoa, yams and maize. They raise sheep and goats primarily to feed their families.

He wants to focus on improving the quality of life for his people by increasing access to potable drinking water, schools, health clinics and chapels, particularly for deprived families in rural areas.

Fostering vocations is another goal for the bishop-elect, a former vocation director. He’d like to have vocation rallies and annual gatherings for seminarians and youngsters to meet diocesan priests.

“The zeal is there. On Sundays, people are ready to stay all day to listen to the Word of God. We have to help them,” he said.

But first, they are helping him.

“Since I am the first bishop,” he said, “we don’t have a bishop’s residence. A parishioner has built a house that he is sacrificing for me to live in,” until an official residence can be built.

Others have sacrificed houses to serve as offices for the chancery and he’ll look to his Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi of Sunyani for guidance in making appointments for vicar general, chancellor and other positions.

In the meantime, he’s looking forward to his first trip to Rome and his first meeting with Pope Benedict, scheduled for late February.

He will be installed in his new diocese on March 29 in the presence of two cardinals, 19 bishops, his family and the hierarchy of the Techiman Traditional Council, to which his family has belonged for several generations.

As he prepares to leave Brooklyn, the bishop-elect says he’s very grateful to Bishop DiMarzio, Msgr. Ronald Marino and the Diocesan Migration Office, and especially Father Charles Matonti, St. Columba’s pastor. As bishop, he will use the interpersonal and organizational skills he learned from Father Matonti in tending to the spiritual and temporal needs of his own diocesan priests.

He will also miss the people of St. Columba.

“They have taken good care of me and supported me. I will always pray for the parish and as a sign of appreciation I will return one day,” the bishop-elect promised.

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