President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference, Most Rev. Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, has explained why the Catholic Church does not approach prophecy in the same way some Ghanaian pastors do.
Speaking on JoyNews, Bishop Gyamfi said the Catholic understanding of prophecy is rooted in the Bible and does not simply involve predicting future events.
“We understand prophecy quite differently from what these people are saying is prophecy,” he said.
According to him, the word prophecy must be understood in its biblical context, and the Catholic Church studies the scriptures in detail.
“We know the original meaning of the words in prophecy and prophesy in Greek, if you like, Aramaic, Hebrew,” he said.
Bishop Gyamfi said a prophet should not be confused with a seer who simply claims to foresee events.
“A prophet is not a seer. A prophet is somebody God gives a message to and is a conditioner,” he explained.
He used the example of biblical messages to Israel, where a prophet would tell the people what would happen depending on whether they followed or rejected a particular instruction from God.
“That is a prophecy. If you do this, this, this, this, this, this will happen. If you refuse to do this, that, that, that, that, that, this will happen,” he said.
Bishop Gyamfi therefore said the Catholic Church does not define prophecy as simply predicting elections or other events.
He added that, according to the Catholic understanding of scripture, Jesus himself was both a prophet and a priest.
