Three Catholic Priests from the Society of Jesus (SJ), commonly known as Jesuits, from three different African Countries, have commended the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary (MSHR) for the warm welcome the Sisters accorded them at their Centenary House at Haatso, Accra which made them to “really enjoy the house”.
They counted themselves privileged to be among the first guests to patronise the house, and rejoiced that they celebrated the very first Mass in the house Chapel ever since it was blessed in 2024.
“We are part of the history of the house,” the three collectively expressed.
The three are: Rev. Fr. Prof. Michel Segatagara Kamanzi, SJ. Associate Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Pontifical Gregorian University in Italy, Rome; Rev. Fr. Dr. Alexandre Ngandu, SJ, an Old Testament Scholar and teacher at the Institute de Theologie de la Compagnie de Jesus (Jesuit School of Theology), in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and Rev. Fr. Dr. Conrad Folifack, SJ, a Biblical scholar and Director of Institut de Theologie de la Compagnie de Jesus, Abidjan.
They were in Ghana to participate in the recently ended 4th Sacred Texts International Conference, held in Accra, Ghana from June 25 to 27, 2025.
“We pray for you and we look forward to making this place our place when we come for the Conferences,” he added.
According to him, they found the place quite strategic on account of its close proximity to the airport, and not too far from the University, the permanent venue for their annual Conferences.
Expressing gratitude to the MSHR Sisters for allowing them to lodge in their house for the two-day Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon, Prof. Kamanzi said, “We are very happy and we thank God for you.”
The Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary Centenary House is a one-year-old edifice that was secured by the MSHR Congregational Leadership to accommodate her Sisters living and working in Ghana’s Donkorkrom Apostolic Vicariate whenever they come to Accra for one thing or the other.
The 4-room of both single and double capacity, and one dormitory storey-building apartment, is also recently opened to Priests, Religious and lay people who may be in need of a place to stay over for a night or more, at an affordable cost.
The Sacred Texts Conference was organised by the Department of Humanities/ Religion of the University of Ghana, Legon, headed by Rev. Fr. Dr. Michael Mensah, Senior Lecturer at the University, is an annual Conference.
It is now in its fourth year of existence, that brings together scholars from various religions, including Muslims, Catholics, Pastors from different evangelical churches, lay people and believers in African Traditional Religion, to explore Sacred Texts.
Talking about Sacred Texts, these include the Bible, the Koran, and African texts like proverbs, images, or whatever that can be considered sacred. Sacred Texts are not just written, but can also be oral. 
Participants at this year’s Conference came from Ivory Coast, Rome, the United States of America, Nigeria and the majority from various Ghanaian Universities, all numbering about 50 participants.
In a June 27, 2025 interview in connection with the Conference at the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Rosary House, the three Scholars shared their experiences.
Rev. Fr. Dr. Alexandre Ngandu, SJ, an Old Testament Scholar and teacher at the Institute de Theologie de la Compagnie de Jesus (Jesuit School of Theology), in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, who attended the inter-religious Conference for the very first time, expressed that the Conference was “very successful”.
He appreciated the initiative of bringing together scholars from different religions to discuss on the Koran, the Bible, the environment, and so on, particularly noting the difference in perspectives among the different religions and even within the same Religion.
Fr. Ngandu underpinned that “even if we are all Christians and reading the same Bible, understanding is different”.
The same applies to various Christian scholars, whose backgrounds, be it Pastoral Theology, Exegesis, Canon Law, among others, have their unique perceptions, hence the need for such conferences that will better inter-religious understanding.
The Democratic Republic of Congo born Jesuit, who was visiting Ghana for the first time, admired the physical outlook of the University of Ghana, as well as the roads in Accra.
For him, “it shows that the President is working”.
Rev. Fr. Dr. Conrad Folifack, SJ, a Biblical scholar and Director of Institut de Theologie de la Compagnie de Jesus, Abidjan, also shared that having been brought up in a very Catholic background, where he was bound to the strict Catholic traditions, the inter-religious Conference gave him the opportunity to meet with, and share ideas with people from other backgrounds and religions.
The Jesuit Director, who is also an Old Testament and Hebrew teacher at the Jesuit Institute of Theology, maintained that bringing together scholars from various backgrounds, was a very enriching experience, which he believed would eventually help participants to change their perceptions of one another, in a positive light, and would take care of some prejudices people may be having in relation to other religions.
Drawing inspiration from the theme of the Conference – “Inter-disciplinarity,” which talks about how the various fields could dialogue on matters of religion, the Cameroonian-born Jesuit who has been working in Ivory Coast since 2018, hoped to explore the relationship between Biblical Exegesis and African Traditional Medicine.
He seeks to compare how each healing ritual in the Bible is in consonance with what we have in African traditional religion.
“I will just like to compare and see how from there, we can value more our traditional medicine and also modernity,” he buttressed.
Rev. Fr. Prof. Michel Segatagara Kamanzi, SJ. Associate Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Pontifical Gregorian University in Italy, Rome, had something to say about the Sacred Texts Conference.
According to him, the Conference was a very unique forum for people of various religions meeting to discuss and share their experiences on “how we deal with Sacred texts in the context of Africa, how it is relevant for our African context and how we can help our people to understand better our different Sacred texts”.
Prof. Kamanzi, who is also a visiting Professor at the Institut de Theologie de la Compagnie de Jesus (ITCJ), Abidjan, with specialty in the Gospel of John, found the Conference “really inspiring” and he hoped that through the new learnings he has acquired from it, he will be able to get deeper in his teaching field, where he encounters students who come from all over the world; mostly priests who come to be formed as teachers of Scriptures in Seminaries.
The Jesuit scholar, also the Formation Delegate of the Rwanda and Burundi Jesuits, believed that the Conference, which was a “rare opportunity” for the scholars from different religions, will give them insight into some of the issues in Africa relating to interpretation of Sacred Texts.
As the Conference of Sacred Texts scholars celebrates its 4th Anniversary this year, the Jesuit Priest shared that the group has a dream of forming a kind of African Sacred Texts Society in the future.
Speaking of his general impression about Ghana and its people, Fr. Kamanzi, a Rwandese, but born and bred in Congo Kinshasa, but later returned to Rwanda after the genocide, where he joined the Jesuits, confessed his love for Ghana, which he said began since 2021, when he visited for the first time, to attend the Ordination of a Ghanaian confrere.
He was particularly fascinated by the welcoming nature of Ghanaians; “I think the ‘Akwaaba’ says it all,” he affirmed.
He likes the culture and the people, and also enjoys Ghanaian food especially their “jellof”. Having been born on a Monday, he answers the Ghanaian Monday-born name, “Kojo”, hence, Fr. Kojo Kamanzi.
“It is really always a joy to come back here,” the Jesuit who was visiting Ghana for the 5th time confessed.
The Scripture scholar expressed joy, meeting his confrere and one-time classmate at Hekima College, Kenya, Rev. Fr. Dr. Enyeribe Oguh, SJ, a Nigerian lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law, who happened to have made a stop-over during their sojourn at the Centenary House.
He was also grateful to Fr. Michael Mensah, the organiser of the Sacred Texts Conference, who had secured the accommodation for them prior to their arrival.
By Sr. Sylvie Lum Cho, MSHR (Sister Communicator)
