Chronology of Catholic Dioceses:Notes on the Diocese of Kano, 1999

The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has elevated (June 22nd 1999) to the rank of diocese the Vicariate Apostolic of Kano (Nigeria) with the same name and territory, making it suffragan of the metropolitan Church of Kaduna.

This ecclesiastical circumscription, created a Missio "sui juris" on March 22nd 1991 and entrusted to the Fathers of the African Missions Society (S. M. A. ) was elevated to the rank of Vicariate Apostolic on December 15th 1995.

In the last 4-5 years the Vicariate Apostolic of Kano has developed considerably. What is more, many of the Catholics, who were a little afraid of declaring themselves Christians, have now overcome this fear, and this is one of the factors for the increase in the number of Catholics.

Here are the statistics:

	KANO in 1995	KANO today
Area	43,170 sq km	43,170 sq km
Population	5,500,000	8,685,995
Catholics	35,000	105,913
parishes	11	20
mission stations	112	115
priests diocesan	18	19
priests religious	7	9
Women religious	7	12
Seminarians (major)	10	15
schools	-	31
Charitable institutes	-	11

The new diocese of Kano, which will be a suffragan of the metropolitan Church of Kaduna, will border to the north with the Republic of Niger (diocese of Niamey), to the east with the Vicariate Apostolic of Bauchi and the diocese of Maiduguri, to the west with the diocese of Sokoto and to the south with the archdiocese of Kaduna. The new Bishop will have his See at Kano where there is a parish church dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima which will serve as Cathedral. )

Source: Fides, 16/7/1999

- CT