NEWARK — Banabas Yeboah Amankwaa got the attention of his religious education formation directors as he prepared to join the Catholic church in a ceremony at St. Margaret of Scotland in Newark on Sunday, Aug. 20.
He is not the usual 21-year-old and that was immediately evident to Father Ed Ogden, pastor at St. Margaret of Scotland. Father Ogden said he was impressed with how well-read, studious and devoted the young man is to learning and growing in his faith.
“He has a good moral sense of who he is and what he needs to do,” Father Ogden said. “He really has studied it.”
A conversation with Amankwaa can quickly turn to relativism, traditional morality, truth and perhaps even Saint Alphonsus Liguori. He chose Alphonsus Liguori as his confirmation name, explaining that “in surveying the current climate both within and outside the church, one is struck with a vision of the collapse of basic moral principles and reasoning. Outside the church, relativism appears to reign supreme … Studying the classical source of morality within the Catholic tradition is the principal means by which we can avoid the confusion that is currently plaguing modern society. And in studying and meditating on the works of St. Alphonsus de Maria Liguori one gets to understand and appreciate morality as the basic foundation of human life.”
“He is certainly a wonderfully unique young man. He was a pleasure to meet with and discuss our faith and our relationship with Jesus and church,” said Banabas’ sponsor and RCIA member Mike Felker. “I doubt that I taught him anything — he has a strong handle on faith and in his relationship with God.”
Amankwaa was born in New York but has spent much of his life in Ghana. He returned to America in 2021 after graduating from high school and settled in Delaware because he has relatives here. He has joined the Air Force Reserves and is studying hydraulics. He saved his money and will be attending the University of Delaware to study biological sciences with plans of becoming a pharmacist, he said.
He felt drawn to Catholicism because of what he feels is the essential truth found in the Catholic faith. “To put it in a nutshell, it is the love for the truth and the entirety of it, which is found in Catholicism alone,” he said.
“We’re pretty much from a Catholic root as I feel every Christian is,” he said of his family. Every member of his family draws its’ name from Biblical figures. His father is named for St. Joseph, his mother for St. Cecilia. A younger brother and sister are named Recab and Jochebed, the mother of Moses. Recab is derived from the House of Rechabites, he said.
While there is truth everywhere, he feels it is complete in the Catholic faith. “Every aspect of life has a little bit of truth,” he said. “Christ is the truth in its whole.”
He is unsure where his spiritual journey will ultimately take him after joining the church. He was Pentecostal before his conversion. “What I really want to focus on is spreading the truth,” he said. “I really have to learn a lot about what I want to teach.”
“The first thing I want to talk about is the unity of body and soul. One cannot be without the other,” he said.
Amankwaa said he is concerned about the spread of materialism and the erosion of traditional morality. He is concerned that Western materialism is spreading and hurting African culture. “Materialism (can be) a god.”
He believes strongly in the importance of confession. He compares it to seeing a medical doctor without hesitation but being reluctant to see a priest who can heal the soul. “We tell (a doctor) everything. You can do that to a doctor, who can only heal the physical body,” he said.
Amankwaa said his favorite scripture concerns Jesus at the well in John 4:27. It was well-known at the time that young men would consider the well a place to meet a potential wife. That, he thinks, must have been quite a surprise to the disciples. “And that is kind of funny,” he said.
Ogden said Amankwaa remains interested in RCIA to help him grow in his faith. Taking the faith so seriously is very unusual and refreshing in one so young, the pastor said.
“He gives me hope for the future,” said Felker. “Maybe we can clone him.”
