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

The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II has created (16 March 1999) the diocese of Yendi (Ghana) with territory taken from the archdiocese of Tamale, making it suffragan of the same metropolitan Church.

The new diocese of Yendi (Ghana ) was created for the following reasons:

  • to allow more capillary evangelization among the people mostly animists
  • to stem the expansion of Islam in the region; to promote reconciliation among the tribes which fought each other in the ethnic conflict in February 1994
  • more effective pastoral care will favour religious growth, all the more because the area appears to be fertile ground for priestly and religious vocations.

Here are the statistics of the archdiocese of Tamale and the new diocese of Yendi:

TAMALE before

YENDI

TAMALE today

area

32,500 sq km 25,000 sq km 7,500 sq km

population

1,055,000 450,000 605,000

Catholics

15,250 3,843 11,407

parishes

12 8 4

priests (diocesan)

22 3 19

priests (religious)

27 9 18

Brothers

15 1 14

Sisters

46 5 41

Major seminarians

18 4 14

The diocese, which is in the eastern part of the archdiocese, will include 5 civil districts: Yendi, Gushiegu-Karaga, Bimbella, Saboba-Chereponi, Zabzugu-Tatale. Yendi is the second largest city of the northern region of Ghana after Tamale.

The Bishop will reside in Yendi and the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes will be the cathedral.

Source: Fides, April 9th, 1999

- CT

av Webmaster publisert 08.09.2004, sist endret 08.09.2004 - 12:10