The Catholic return to Elmina in 1880: how two SMA priests restarted the church in Ghana

On 18 May 1880, two French priests stepped ashore at Elmina. Fathers Auguste Moreau and Eugène Murat, of the Society of African Missions, had come to restart a Catholic presence on the Gold Coast that had been absent for well over two centuries. From that small beginning grew one of the largest churches in Ghana, with millions of members, schools, hospitals and its own cardinal.

The Portuguese, the Dutch and the landing

The Portuguese built the castle of São Jorge da Mina at Elmina in 1482, and Catholic priests served there. Mass was celebrated at the castle in the early years. When the Dutch captured Elmina Castle in 1637, Catholic worship at the castle ended, and the Protestant Dutch did not allow Catholic missions. The Society of African Missions, known by its French initials SMA, was founded in Lyon in 1856 to send missionaries to Africa.

Moreau and Murat arrived at Elmina in 1880 and began their work among the town’s people.

Hardship, schools and African clergy

Tropical diseases killed many early missionaries. Those who survived worked in difficult conditions with limited resources. The mission opened schools, which became one of the main ways the church grew. Catholic schools remain important in Ghana today. The church expanded from Elmina and Cape Coast into the interior, including Kumasi and the north, where the White Fathers also worked.

Over time, Ghanaian priests and bishops took leadership of the church. Peter Turkson, a former Archbishop of Cape Coast, became Ghana’s first cardinal in 2003. Ghana’s Catholics marked the centenary in 1980 and later anniversaries with celebrations at Elmina. The Catholic Church runs schools, hospitals and social services across Ghana.

Cape Coast, the north and the founders

Cape Coast became an important centre for the church, and the Archdiocese of Cape Coast is one of the oldest Catholic jurisdictions in Ghana. Its schools, including St. Augustine’s College, educated many leaders. Missionaries of the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, known as the White Fathers, began work in northern Ghana in the early twentieth century, starting at Navrongo.

The names of Moreau and Murat are honoured in Catholic history lessons and anniversary celebrations. Two priests landed on a beach under the walls of a castle the Portuguese had built centuries earlier. The church they restarted now reaches every region of Ghana.