Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
8 April 2008
Ouahigouya — The Catholic Diocese of Ouahigouya is marking its 50 anniversary, which will close in November, on the Feast of Christ the King with the priestly ordination of seven deacons and the consecration of the new cathedral.
The three days of celebrations to close the jubilee year will begin on November 21, with a penitential liturgy and individual confessions, a special mass for the repose of the souls of deceased pastoral workers and for members of the diocese who are sick and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Fides reported.
The Diocese of Ouahigouya was created on June 23, 1958. It has a population of 995,000 of whom about 95,000 are Catholic. There are 10 parishes, 41 diocesan priests and one religious priest, 11 brothers and 93 sisters, and 27 major seminarians. The diocese runs 14 schools and five charity centres.
In an interview with the diocesan magazine Echo du Yatenga, Bishop Philippe Ouedraogo, Bishop of Ouahigouya since November 23, 1996, recalled that "the jubilee year was opened on December 2, 2007, First Sunday of Advent, at Bam, the first parish of the diocese (1923)."
It was from Bam that the first missionaries, the White Fathers or Missionaries of Africa, began evangelisation. "The fact that the jubilee year was opened at Bam was an act of homage and offered a vibrant sign of hope for an ever more fruitful future," the bishop said.
The jubilee motto is, "We give thanks, and put out into the deep. "We thank God for the 50 years of our Diocese of Ouahigouya," Bishop Ouedraogo explained, "and strengthened by his gifts and filled with a spirit of family, we put out into the deep to proclaim the Good News".
For the construction of a new cathedral, Bishop Ouedraogo called on the sons and daughters of the diocese, wherever they are, and all the friends and men and women of goodwill to make a contribution, each according to his means, to build God's house.
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