Berkley Center

Background: Sister Cecelia Clare Kudexa, Sister of Mary Mother of the Church (SMMC), is a member of Georgetown University’s Women Faith Leaders Fellowship 2024-25 cohort. She belongs to the founding cohort of Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church, established in the Volta Region of Ghana. An educator by training, Sr. Kudexa has worked as a teacher at both boys’ and girls’ secondary schools in Ghana and has also served as a school principal. In 2001, she was elected superior general of the congregation, a position she served in for ten years. Throughout her career, she has supported and empowered marginalized women and girls, including young mothers.

Sr. Kudexa spoke with Luisa Banchoff via Zoom on May 29, 2025. In their conversation, she reflected on her path to becoming a sister, shaped by the example of her mother and encounters with missionary sisters from Europe. She spoke of the challenges and lessons learned during her time as superior general, the vital role of the charismatic renewal in her spiritual life, and her lifelong passion for helping girls and women, which is also the focus of her capstone project for the Women Faith Leaders Fellowship.

Bio: Sister Cecilia Clare Kudexa is an educator, administrator, and member of the Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church. She earned her B.A. in biological sciences and an M.A. in educational administration at Ursuline College in Cleveland, Ohio. She has extensive experience in education, teaching at OLA Girls Secondary School in Ho and the all-boys St. Mary's Seminary Secondary School in Lolobi, as well as serving as the principal at St. Agatha's Commercial School, Hohoe. She went on to lead her congregation as superior general for ten years. Sr. Kudexa has a passion for the education and empowerment of girls and young women. She currently works in the Afram Plains, where she helps young women facing unplanned motherhood and financial difficulties.

Could you tell me a bit about your background. Where are you from? Were you raised Catholic?

My name is Sister Cecilia Clare Kudexa. I belong to the Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church. I’m the second-born of eight children. I was born in a place called Abor, in the Volta region of Ghana.
I was raised Catholic. My father was a Catholic. My mother was originally a Presbyterian, but my father brought her into the Catholic faith. She was very active in the Church, a woman who inculcated the Catholic faith in me. She was what we call the Hamedada, meaning the “church mother.” She did a lot of outreach. She would go to the villages surrounding Abor for evangelization. I think that was where I got my desire to serve the church. I always joke that it’s my mother who should have been a sister, because she was a very, very active Christian, somebody who showed her faith in a very concrete way. 

In my village, there were also missionary sisters from Europe, from France and Holland. They were nurses and midwives. One of them was named Sister Cecelia. She was the midwife who delivered me, and so her name was given to me: Cecilia.

These missionary sisters were very, very active in my village. They didn't stay just in the health center. They were with us. They visited our homes and prayed with us. I liked to see them walking from house to house. I think they were at the back of my mind when the announcement was made about the new congregation being formed. That probably was what pushed me to say I would go. The missionary sisters played a big role in my decision to become a religious.

What was your journey to becoming a sister?

I grew up in Abor and went to elementary school there. At that time, you were able to do a lot of things with an elementary school certificate. I finished elementary school when I was 14. This was very early, because I had started early, at the age of four. Around that time, an announcement was made that a new congregation of women religious was being established in our diocese. And so, right after elementary school, I applied to join the new congregation.

I arrived in the convent at 15. I was the youngest. The actual age for somebody to enter the convent is 18. The congregation took me on because they were just beginning, and they did not know whether all of us who joined would be able to stay. But I had to wait until the age of 18 before taking my first vows. I spent four years in formation. Since I had only completed elementary school, I had to get my secondary school certificate. I went to OLA secondary school, run by the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, for five years.

How did your family react to your desire to become a sister? Were vocations common in your community?

It was a new thing in my community at that time. My parents knew about religious sisters, but they were European sisters. They were white. My parents had not seen any African sisters before. So it was new to them. 

My father was very supportive of my vocation. He said, go. My mother, surprisingly, did not say anything. She did not object, but she did not approve either. I never knew what her opinion was concerning my vocation until I was professed. Then she was able to tell me the reason why she’d kept silent. It was because she was not sure I was going to make it. That is why she didn't say yes or no. She just allowed me to do what I wanted to do.

You earned both your bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the United States and went on to teach at several secondary schools in Ghana. Can you tell me a bit more about your educational and professional experience?

I was asked by my congregation to go to Ursuline College, in Cleveland, Ohio, to continue my education, alongside three other newly professed sisters. This was because, as founding members of the congregation, we needed a very good education, so that the congregation could start on solid ground with people who are educated enough to carry the congregation.

At Ursuline College, I did my bachelor's degree in biological sciences. My idea was to become a medical doctor. But when I came home to Ghana, I was asked to teach at OLA secondary school, my alma mater. I taught health science and biology for four years. Then I was asked to go back to Cleveland to do my master’s in educational administration at Ursuline College, because there was a need for the new congregation to have teachers, education, and administrators.

When I returned to Ghana, I was asked to be the principal of St. Agatha's Commercial School. In my work at the school, I came in contact with a lot of young girls who were having difficulties in getting education. Some of them had financial constraints, and some of them had gotten pregnant or already had one or two babies. But they had the desire to continue education, so they came to the commercial school. I began to take an interest in working with these girls and young women who are facing difficulties.

Tell me about your congregation, the Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church. When was it founded, and what are the focus areas of the congregation?

The Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church(SMMC) was founded by Bishop Antony Konings, of the Society of African Missions. He was from Holland. He was the Bishop of Keta Diocese, the diocese in which my village is situated. At that time, the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) were very active in the diocese.

When Bishop Konings was nearing the end of his time as bishop, he realized that the OLA sisters were becoming fewer and fewer. They were getting older, and the congregation was not sending younger sisters from Europe to replace them. Bishop Konings realized that their role in his diocese would come to an end if there were no indigenous religious sisters to take their place. So he founded our congregation to take over the work of the OLA sisters. They taught catechism, ran boarding houses and schools, and were nurses, doctors, and midwives. So our congregation followed suit.

SMMC is involved in education at all levels, from primary to senior high school. We have our own schools and work as teachers and administrators. We are also involved in health care. We run our own hospital clinics and health centers and have sisters who are doctors, nurses, midwives, and all kinds of health workers. We also have a social and pastoral apostolate. That means teaching catechism and doing pastoral work in parishes. We are also involved in what we call the hospitality apostolate. Our sisters are caterers, and some also oversee the sewing of priestly vestments, church linens, and altar cloths. 

The congregation was founded in the Ho Diocese in the Volta region. We have to spread to different dioceses, for example in the Oti Region and the Eastern Region. I currently work in the Eastern Region. We also have two houses in the U.S.A., so we are outside Ghana as well.

Do your sisters also work in government schools and hospitals?

Yes. We work in the government schools and government hospitals, but the government hospitals that we work in are also diocesan hospitals.

Right now, we have a hospital built by ourselves that is being run by our sisters. We also have one school, from basic primary going up to second cycle education, that is our own. We call it Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church) school. But the greater number of our sisters work for the diocese and also for the government.

You served as superior general of your congregation for 10 years. What led to your election, and what were your main responsibilities?

I'm somebody who likes to take initiative. When I see something needs to be done, I get up and do it. People call me “jump-into-it” because I jump into things that need to be done. I really like to work with people, talk with them, listen to them, and advise them. Maybe that's what the sisters saw in me when they elected me.

As superior general, my duty was to take care of the sisters, to bring them along in the fulfillment of our charism. That was how I saw my mission: bringing the sisters along and taking care of their spiritual and material needs as much as I can.

It was a very challenging time in my life, because not everybody saw the bigger picture as I did as a leader. That was the challenge, getting everybody to buy into the vision and to come along. But with the help of God and the Holy Spirit giving me wisdom, enlightenment, and discernment along the way, and with the help of the sisters on my team, I was able to get through my first term. I did not die; I came out alive! Then, just like that, they re-elected me for a second term. So they probably thought I did all right.

At the beginning of the second term, I got very sick. Looking back, I realize that I got sick because I took in everything. I was swallowing the challenges without finding the right outlet for myself. I did not have the support structure that I should have had. I just kept on working, carrying everybody, even those who didn’t want to be carried. That was what got me very sick. I thought I was going to die, but I pulled through and was able to finish the second term.

I’m now serving as an advisor for those in leadership of congregations of women religious. I advise them to have support system for themselves before they carry the work of leadership. Because it’s not easy at all.

What was the biggest lesson you learned from your time in leadership?

In the first term, my nature was to jump into things quickly and say: “We need to do this or that. Let’s do it.” That kind of approach got me into a lot of problems because people were not ready. You can’t push people too fast and too much. If they are not ready to move, they will not move. And if you don't slow down for people to catch up with you, that can lead to frustration. So my experience taught me to be patient and gentle, to go a little bit slower.

I also learned that you need to know the people you are leading. You need to know them well enough to see how everybody works at a different pace. It's not everybody who is ready to run when you are ready to run. That is another big lesson that I learned, which I tried to implement in my second term. It is important for leaders to be patient with themselves first of all, and then with other people.

You mention your passion for helping girls and young women. How did this become a focus of your work?

When I was growing up, my mother was a seamstress, a baker, and a petty trader. She traded in a lot of things. People from the village would bring their young girls to be apprenticed to my mother. I was living in an environment where my mother was mentoring these girls and teaching them skills. Some of these girls came in already with one child on their back, so our house was always full of girls and young women, some of whom were struggling. I saw that already as a child growing up.

When I became the principal of St. Agatha’s Commercial School, there were girls coming to that school who were having difficulties getting through school because of finances or because they were teenage mothers. It was another point where I came into contact with girls who are in need.

Then, as superior general of the congregation, I had to travel the length and breadth of the Volta region, as well as some other parts of Ghana, to attend meetings and visit my sisters. I saw a lot of young women and girls walking long distances, carrying loads on their heads to go to the nearest market, sometimes with a baby on their back. And you know Ghana is hot, it’s a hot country. These girls walk in the sun on roads that are not paved, so there’s a lot of dust. So I saw a lot of suffering and pain. I felt very, very moved that these young girls need to be helped. Their stories need to change. They can’t go through life like that.

This desire to help kept building – from what I saw in my childhood, what I saw as a school principal, and what as I saw as superior general. I understood that somebody has to do something about what is going on in the lives of these women in order to give them a better future. That pushed me to work with young girls and women.

Before I left office as the superior general, I opened a new community in the Afram Plains. It is a rural area, an underdeveloped area. To get there, you have to cross rivers and lakes. I opened a community there and sent my sisters there. They were not sure of whether they would survive, so I promised them that when I finished my second term, I would come there myself and help them build the community. 

After a brief sabbatical, I went to the Afram Plains to see how it’s going in the community. That was where I met a number of women whose stories overwhelmed me. I decided to stay and help these women.

What challenges do young women in the Afram Plains face?

In their Afram Plains, you meet girls who attend school only up to class four (ages 8-9) or class five (ages 9-10), some even as young as class three (ages 7-8). After that, their parents say, “We don’t have money to let you continue school. When you finish school, you are just going to get married to a man and I'm not going to benefit anything from you. It's better if the boys go to school. You, girl, go and stay with your auntie or your grandmother or uncle somewhere in another village, and help them on the farm.”

This was a common a story in the Afram Plains, and girls were dropping out of school to go and stay with somebody else and work there in order to send some money home. And after a number of years, even at the age of 15 or 16, they were being given in marriage to some man who is farming or fishing. Those are the two main occupations. So the girls ended up working and having babies they cannot send to school because they don't have the money. In the village where the SMMC community is located, the school dropout rate for girls was the highest in the region.

When these girls drop out of school, they go and stay with their families and work on the farm, and then they come back to their parents in their home village with their babies. And their parents are not ready to take care of them, and the fathers of the babies are not there. So these women need skills in order to generate their own revenue to take care of themselves.

I informed my superior general who took over for me that I wanted to set up a skills training center for these girls. She agreed, and we wrote to the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters, and they readily supported the project. We built the Mater Ecclesiae Skills Training Center in the village, where we provide skills training to many of the girls and young women. We train them in baking bread and pastries. Our sisters who are in the hospitality apostolate teach the girls how to make local drinks and how to do decorations. At the same time, we give them what we call home management training: how to take care of their children, how to take care of themselves, how to take care of their environment so they don't get sick.

I am happy to say that many of the girls who went through our center are doing quite all right. Some of the sisters reported to me that their children are looking better. They get good nourishment because their mothers are able to feed them well. They are looking cleaner when they come to school and all that. So that's what that center is doing in that village for the young girls and the mothers. Now we have added sewing skills so that the girls can be taught in dressmaking and decoration. This is how we are trying to alleviate the suffering of the young women.

Do you receive recognition or support from other organizations, or from the government?

In the beginning we relied on the Hilton Fund for funding, but my congregation had to supplement. Right now, as we are adding the sewing department, the sisters in charge are trying to get the local government involved. But it is very, very difficult to get their support.

Why is it so difficult?

The local government’s understanding, as I came to know, is that the Catholic Church has money. So when the Catholic Church establishes anything in the area, the government expects financial help from them. They expect that the Catholic Church will give them money to set up a school and let the children attend free. They don’t understand why we would come to them to get help financial help.
There needs to be a lot of education so that the government knows we are trying to help society, which is also their duty. It is their duty that everybody in their catchment area gets the help they need. 

But when the Catholic Church comes in to help, the government should not leave the burden on them.
Is there a large Catholic community in the Afram Plains?

Catholic missionaries evangelized the area, especially missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word. So the Church is well-known but it is not growing as fast as you would expect. This is because when people come here to work, after two or three years they get transferred and go away because the area is difficult. There is a moving population. The church may grow this year, but by the time you realize it, the young people in the church are getting transferred and going away. It doesn't make the church population stable. And then other churches are coming in, maybe promising free loans to people, and so people go to those churches.

You're involved in the Catholic charismatic renewal. What is the history of the renewal in Ghana and how did you become involved?

When the charismatic renewal broke out in Europe and the Vatican accepted it, it was brought to Ghana by two religious sisters and one priest. Some years ago, we celebrated 50 years of the charismatic renewal in Ghana. The renewal is meant to renew the Church, to give life to the Church. It's supposed to help Catholics who are baptized, confirmed, and receiving the Eucharist to continue to grow in the Spirit. They need to know the word of God to be able to share the word of God. So the renewal’s main focus is evangelization: sharing the word of God under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives gifts so that people can grow spiritually and use their gift to edify the Church.

I got very interested in the renewal because I realized that when people go through the catechism, after they receive baptism, first communion, and confirmation, then that is it. There is no formal teaching for people to keep on growing spiritually. I see the charismatic renewal as occupying that space and doing it very well.

At the beginning I was actually forced to do it, because they came and gave our congregation a Life in the Spirit seminar. It provides teachings to make you grow in your Christian life. In the seminar, they pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So I went to the seminar, but nothing shook me at that time.
When I was in Cleveland for my master’s, I had to teach in one of the inner city schools in order to earn salary to support myself. It was hard for me because the children were tough. So I got stuck. I didn't think I was going to be able to finish my master's. Then I turned to prayer and called on the Holy Spirit to help me. And I deeply experienced the presence of the Spirit taking control of the class that I was teaching. It was a very deep encounter. I felt the Holy Spirit took over my class. So I was able to continue for three years in Cleveland to earn my master’s.

When I came back, I said I was going to dedicate my life to pursuing the Holy Spirit. We have a center in Kumasi that gives formation for the charismatic renewal, and I took advantage of every opportunity to learn. Now I am completely crazy about the renewal. I am giving the seminars and workshops to the youth. Through this I'm also meeting girls and young women who need help spiritually and materially.

As we speak, I'm running a seminar in two parishes in the Keta-Akatsi Diocese. Every weekend, at one or the other parish, I run a seminar with a team. I enjoy it very much. It's very fulfilling. I'm glad to see people coming up to give testimonies of how their lives have been changed and how they are able to go on in life now because of these seminars and workshops.

Tell me about your capstone project for the Women Faith Leaders Fellowship.

The title of the project is “Voices of Resilience: Your Voice, Your Power.” It is about projecting the voices of suffering girls and women in the rural areas, particularly in the Afram Plains. I want to bring their stories to the fore to create awareness in the community and enlist support for these women. My want to bring healing to these women, because when you listen to their stories, you know these women are deeply hurt. Some of them are frustrated. They don't know how to go on in life.

My main aim is to listen to their stories, get them counseling, give them advice as to how to move on, and then share their stories with the public so that people know there are women suffering right beside them and that they can do something to help, if not these particular women, then the women in their communities who are going through the same kinds of problems.

I realized that you can’t learn the stories of these women if you don't empower them economically, as these women are suffering because they don’t have money. Economic empowerment is one of the main things they need before they can be bold enough to tell their stories in the hope that somebody out there will listen to them and help them.

Yesterday, I was visiting some women involved in the project in a nearby town. I realized how far they have come. They are now able to confidently talk about themselves. They are confidently able to say, “I want to do this in order to better my future and the future of my children. I want to enter into this program. I want to enter into this enterprise.” They now realize they can do something about their situation. They also now realize that this is the kind of help they need in order to move forward. If more people are able to help them, it will be my joy and it will be my peace.