(While Fr. Sev Kuupuo is participating in the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program at Stanford Health Care this year — training for hospital chaplaincy work, he is living at the parish rectory at St. Albert the Great and presiding at various daily and weekend Masses)
It is a pleasure to introduce myself. I am the first born of eight children. I had the fortune of being brought up as a cradle Catholic in western education; I was baptized the day after my birth about half a century ago. My parents lived in Nandom, Northern Ghana and I was greatly influenced by their faith and community service.
At an early age of twelve, I entered St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary/ Secondary School, in
Wa, Ghana. At that age I had vague ideas about the processes to the priesthood. Nevertheless, that was my burning desire and ultimate aim of entry into the minor seminary. From the minor seminary I proceeded to Nandom Secondary School and to the St. Victor’s Major Seminary in 1984 for philosophical and theological education and seminary formation.
I was ordained by Archbishop Abraham Katumana, the then Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana in December 1991. I was appointed the Chaplain and the Local Manager of the Catholic schools at St. Joseph’s Parish in Jirapa. In 1993, I was assigned to my alma mater, St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary as a tutor. From 1997 to 2000, I studied in Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. Consequently, I was assigned as the Wa Diocesan Financial Administrator until June 2010.
I had been engulfed in pastoral ministry in Southern California since 2010. I felt the call to care for the sick and traumatized. The need to develop the skills brought me to Stanford Health Care and St. Thomas Aquinas Parish.