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Breif History
LIST OF CUSTOS
The Franciscan Order arrived in Ghana at the invitation of the St. Anthony’s Guild, a society in the Catholic Church with strong devotion to St. Anthony of Padua. In 1975 a delegation from Ghana who had attended the Jubilee Year approached the Minister General to solicit for Franciscan presence in Ghana to cater for the spiritual needs of the devotees to saint Anthony, knowing very well that the wonder saint of Padua was also a Franciscan.
In 1977 two missionary Conventual Franciscan groups arrived in Ghana; incidentally both came from Provinces that have St. Anthony as their patron. The St. Anthony Province, USA arrived first and later the St. Anthony Province, Padova, Italy. In the beginning both missions operated as separate jurisdictions until in 1991 when the two were unified under the tutelage of the St. Anthony of Padua Province, Padova. In 1994, on the feast of the Stigmata, the Ghanaian mission was elevated to the status of Custody, with Friar Vincent Marcoli as its first Custos. Friar Vincent was succeded by the late friar Emilio Galo. Subsequently were Friar. Maistrello Botolino and Friar Joseph Blay as vicar took over the administration for two mandates
On 19th March 2014 at an Ordinary Custodial Chapter, Friar Anthony Kutiero Bezo, was elected Custos, being the first Ghanaian Provincial Custos with Friar Eugene Antwi as his vicar.
friar Vincenzo MARCOLI 1st
friar Maistrello Bortolino
3rd
friar Emilio Gallo (late)
2nd
friar Anthony Bezo
4th
Present Reality
The Conventual Franciscan Friars are located today in four dioceses in Ghana. Namely Takoradi, Sunyani, Cape Coast and Accra. There are five convents including a novitiate. Currently there are twenty eight friars of the custody in Solemn Vows. Out of this number, twenty are Ghanaians, six Italians and two Romanians. For those under initial formation, there are 26 friars in temporal or simple vows and these are at different levels of seminary formation. There are some brothers who have just began their early formation process.
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Our pastoral activities include Parish work, Printing Press and publication, care for the poor and marginalized, formation and teaching; retreats, spiritual direction and counseling.
What concrete Conventual Franciscan life do the friars live today in Ghana? What is Conventual life? By history and tradition, Conventual Franciscan life has been characterized by common life in a convent or friary, common apostolate, and they are situated at the periphery of towns and cities. Conventual friars have had churches or parishes where they administer the sacraments with one friar responsible as a rector or pastor. The peculiarity of the personalities of Joseph of Cupertino, Maxmillian Kolbe and the like, depicts that the Conventual Charism tolerates and accepts diverse but compatible individual charisms within the larger traditional Conventual charism. It is also characteristic of Conventual charism to discover the particular need of the people of God in time and space and to respond to it: Conventual charism is dynamic.
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