The Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, Most Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong, says it is part of natural law that a doctor whose profession by nature, is to prevent death, should not deliberately cause death by going on strike in pursuit of better conditions of service, leaving the sick at the mercy of death.Concomitantly, a lawyer who tells a lie in order to make a legal point to win his case commits a crime of immense proportion against the natural law that has been given to human beings as part of our rational nature.
Peter Kwasi Sarpong has, accordingly charged Christian leaders in the country to be protectors of the law by pointing out these violations to those in breach.
"A Christian leader should tell the judge who acts unjustly that he commits a crime of immense proportion against the natural law. He must realize that he has been appointed a judge in order to prevent injustice, and therefore, to commit an act of injustice under the guise of administering justice is a catastrophe.
Delivering a keynote address on the theme: "Empowering Christian Leaders through Legal Education" at a law conference in Kumasi, the Catholic Archbishop noted that natural laws are one of the manifestations of eternal law of God.
He mentioned the rest as physical laws of nature, positive divine laws, and positive human laws in which both ecclesiastical laws (laws formulated by religions to govern their members) and civil laws (laws made by civil authority) come from.
According to him, civil laws often are only a concrete expression of natural law. "For example it forbids homicide. Natural law itself indicates that to murder somebody is wrong. Civil law reinforces this natural law and attaches a punishment to its infringement."
The Centre for Human Rights and Advanced Legal Research (CHRALER), a non-governmental organisation committed to the promotion of human rights and legal education organized the conference for Christian leaders drawn from different churches in the metropolis.
Most Rev. Sarpong said there is a hierarchy of values in law and laws of nature will always predominate, adding that civil law should not be made permitting abortion since both natural and positive divine laws forbid the killing of human beings, especially innocent and defenceless ones.
In the same way, the Catholic Archbishop stated that civil law would be faulty in legalizing prostitution, and for that matter, neither civil law nor ecclesiastical law can defend the prohibition of political parties or banning of newspapers or the denial of a citizen's right to conscience.
To this end, Archbishop Sarpong said the Christian leaders' role is to direct, guide, and help his followers to know the law - whether divine or human, natural or positive in order to keep it. "As a Christian leader, use the guidance that the Lord Jesus himself has laid down.
Protect your subjects against injustice arising out of misapplication of the law", he charged and continued that a Christian leader should also know that civil law sometimes, contradicts moral law. According to him, whereas the interpretation of civil law is often based on the idea of freedom and rights, moral law is guided by the principle of the dignity of the human person and its violability and inalienable human rights of every person.
Mr. Ernest Owusu-Dapaah, Executive Director of CHRALER, charged Christian leaders in the country to help shape legislative enactments by parliament. He believed this could be done during the pre-enactment, enactment, and post-enactment stages, adding that if the church is going to play a constructive role in the public policy formation, it should make concrete proposals for correcting the policy deficiencies that will affect divine principles and laws.
Mr. Owusu-Dapaah who is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) said, however that morally and strategically, it makes sense for the churches to balance criticism with concrete alternatives, which will help clarify their concerns so that their arguments will be made more accurate and convincing.
Ms. Christina Beninger, a law student, took participants through the human rights concepts and regimes, and how Christian leaders as citizens of this land can protect and promote human rights in Ghana.
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