What began as an idea in October 2025 has become a completed Catholic church building at Trom in the Koforidua Diocese, with the project completed in September 2026.
The St. John Vianney Catholic Church, built under the patronal intercession of St. John Vianney, was conceived because of concerns about the absence of a Catholic church in the Trom area and its surroundings.
The closest Catholic church, St. Dominic at Adweso, was about three or more kilometres away. Catholics living in Trom and nearby communities therefore had to choose between St. Dominic, St. Bakhita and St. George Cathedral for Holy Mass.
The idea of putting up a church at Trom first came in October 2025. The priest behind the initiative, Fr. Joseph Quainoo Aggrey initially wondered whether it would be possible to find someone willing to build a church in the area.
Instead, an intuition grew that something could be done without looking for someone else. The idea was prayed over throughout the Rosary Month of October. The more the priest prayed, the stronger the desire to act became.
The next step was to find out how much it would cost to construct a church with a capacity of 300 to 350 people. Fr. Daniel Tetteh Tackie, the Diocesan Structural Engineer, gave an approximate cost of GH¢1.6 million.
The figure initially looked daunting, but the belief remained that the project was possible and achievable. The substructure of the project began on January 7, 2026, and construction steadily progressed until the building was completed in September 2026.
The church was built by five Catholic priests of the Catholic Diocese of Koforidua. Namely, Rev. Fr. Joseph Quainoo Aggrey, JCL, Pastoral Director and Chancellor of the Koforidua Diocese; Fr. Ebenezer Kenneth Abban, PhD, DHS Director and Manager of St. Dominic Catholic Hospital, Akwatia; Fr. Michael Numekevor Jnr., Esq., Diocesan civil lawyer and Priest in charge of estates; Fr. Eric Evans Akahoho, Parish Priest of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, Akim Ida; and Fr. Derrick Eyram Senanu, Parish Priest of St. Peter Catholic Church, Somanya.
“We saw a problem in front of us and decided not to look away but chose to respond with whatever we could offer, not because we were rich,” they said.
The church will be dedicated by Most Rev. Joseph Afrifah-Agyekum, DD STD, on October 9, 2026, in the presence of a large gathering of the Christian faithful, to the glory of God. The patronal feast day of the church will therefore be August 4, the feast of St. John Vianney.
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