JJ’s Death; The Moral Lessons For All

Brethren, I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to share my thoughts, having observed events at the requiem mass held in honour of president Rawlings yesterday.

Bishop Charles Palmer Buckle (then Reverend Dr) was the editor The Catholic Standard, before it was banned by the PNDC government of Jerry John Rawlings in 1985.

It will be recalled that when the PNDC ousted Dr. Hilla Limann’s PNP government in 1981, the PNDC carried out several anti-democratic and human rights abuses against many Ghanaians including journalists, chiefs, traders, politicians, judges, university lecturers, ex-police and army officers, trade unionists, members of the clergy and ordinary citizens.

Bishop Palmer Buckle was so fierce in his editorials against the Rawlings led PNDC that he became a target, but on the night operatives of the PNDC moved in to kill him, they mistook another priest for Reverend Buckle. The priest’s body was later found at the Chokor beach near Accra the following morning.

Yesterday, the 24 January 2021, a requiem mass was held in honour of the Jerry John Rawlings who died on the 12 November 2020, at the Holy Spirit Cathedral at Adabraka in Accra, and guess who officiated the mass- Bishop Palmer Buckle.

Moral of my write-up: You never know who will be there for you tomorrow. So, as the bible puts it in Romans 12:18 “ If it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men”.