Catholic Intelligence

Diocese of Gikongoro

Ghikongoroën(sis)

The Diocese of Gikongoro is a Latin Church suffragan diocese in Rwanda, erected on 30 March 1992 from the Diocese of Butare. It is led by Bishop Célestin Hakizimana and includes the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho.

The see

Rank
Suffragan diocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
30 March 1992
Latin
Ghikongoroën(sis)
Annuario code
001001487

The see in figures

Catholics
319,000
Population
537,580
Catholic share
59.3%

of the people living within its bounds

Priests
53
Catholics per priest
6,019
Extent
2,057 km²
Catholics per km²
155

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Bishop
Célestin Hakizimana
Born
14 August 1963
Birthplace
Kigali

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

Cathédrale de la Sainte Famille stands in Gikongoro, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.

On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.

The province of Kigali

A suffragan of Archdiocese of Kigali.

The sees of this province:

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

The city of Gikongoro in Rwanda is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gikongoro (Latin: Ghikongoroën(sis)), which belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Kigali. Within its bounds lies the parish of Kibeho, where apparitions of the Virgin Mary were reported throughout the 1980s; a shrine honoring the apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho now stands at the site and draws pilgrims. Large Catholic parishes at Kaduha and Cyanika also belong to the diocese.

What is kept by invitation

The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.

The working record is not. The chancery's address, telephone and email, the clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it are kept for members, and a person reads every request.

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Sources

The see's own website · Wikipedia

This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].