A second city in Ivory Coast consecrated to Mary

The town of Grand-Bassam, in the southeastern part of Ivory Coast, was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Sunday, August 30, 2020. Father Jean Bonzo Kouassi, Vicar General of the Diocese of Grand-Bassam and representative of the local Ordinary, Bishop Raymond Ahoua, presided over the special consecration Mass at the parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

"What we are doing today is not a fashionable thing. We are not just meeting to consecrate Bassam to the Virgin Mary in a superficial way. We must live in truth because the path of consecration passes through the path of truth," Father Bonzo Kouassi told the multi-ethnic people of Grand-Bassam who attended the ceremony.

The consecration took place in a particularly tense social context, as the country was preparing for political elections. For Father Bonzo Kouassi, this consecration to Mary "calls for a deeper personal commitment to Christ" and will allow, thanks to Mary, "the birth of a new dynamism in the heart of each one of us and in the hearts of Ivorians."

The consecration of Grand-Bassam was called for by the city’s mayor, Jean Louis Moulot, who said: "I have decided, in the light of our faith, to bring to the Lord, through the immaculate hands of His Mother, our city and our country the Ivory Coast. We firmly believe that by this act of consecration of Grand-Bassam to the Mother of the Church, the entire Ivory Coast is being offered to the Lord."

With this act of consecration, Grand-Bassam becomes the second city in Ivory Coast to be consecrated to the Virgin Mary. The other one is Cocody, located in the autonomous district of Abidjan. Grand-Bassam can be considered the eldest daughter of the Church in the country, since it was the first city to be evangelized (1895) in Ivory Coast. This year, the Diocese of Grand-Bassam is celebrating the 125^th anniversary of its evangelization.

Adapted from: Vatican News