We seek to build, restore and sustain. We are oriented just towards good service. SOMPA is a Catholic NGO initiated by the Ghana Province of the Society of African Missions (SMA) as a vehicle of transforming the lives of many people we serve as missionaries. As a faith-based organization, we strive to accompany people in discovering their God-given talents and resources in order to better their living conditions. For us, ‘development’ is necessarily human and integral just as the Papal encyclical Caritas in Veritate teaches. The humanness of development is based on its ability to be at the service of humanity and it is integral when the “primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person…” (Caritas in Veritate no. 25) so that “the idea of a world without development is a distrust of man and God” (ibid, no.14). Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as the foundation of our commitment
The CST according to Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1986) in its Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation, “has established itself as a doctrine by using the resources of human wisdom and the sciences. It concerns the ethical aspect of this life. It took into account the technical aspects of problems but always in order to judge them from the moral point of view.” The CST functions with principles that are constantly valid in all socio-economic situations and are contingent in time and place. These principles are as follows: the dignity of the human person, solidarity, subsidiarity and the common good. Since the principles are universal they can be applied in all situations. In the words of Pope Benedict CST: “assembles into a unity the fragments in which it is often found and mediates it within the constantly changing life patterns of the society of peoples and nations” (Caritas in Veritate no.9).
