Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brazzaville

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brazzaville (Latin: Archidioecesis Brazzapolitana) is the Metropolitan See for the Ecclesiastical province of Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo.

Archdiocese of Brazzaville

Archidioecesis Brazzapolitana
Location
Country Republic of the Congo
Ecclesiastical provinceBrazzaville
Statistics
Area14,450 km2 (5,580 sq mi)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		(as of 2006)
758,000
431,225 (56.9%)
Parishes40
Information
DenominationCatholic Church
RiteRoman Rite
Established4 June 1886 (134 years ago)
CathedralCathédrale Sacré-Coeur
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
ArchbishopAnatole Milandou
CoadjutorBienvenu Manamika Bafouakouahou, elect

History

On 4 June 1886, Pope Leo XIII established the Apostolic Vicariate of French Congo from the Diocese of São Paulo de Loanda in Angola and the Apostolic Vicariate of Two Guineas in Gabon. It was renamed as the Apostolic Vicariate of Upper French Congo on 14 October 1890, and again on 14 June 1922 as the Apostolic Vicariate of Brazzaville. It lost territory in 1950 when the Apostolic Vicariate of Fort-Rousset was established. Pope Pius XII promoted the vicariate to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Brazzaville on 14 September 1955. It lost territory again in 1987 when the Diocese of Kinkala was established.[1][2]

On May 30, 2020, the dioceses of Owando and Pointe-Noire were raised to metropolitan archdioceses, and consequently the province of Brazzaville was split into 3 provinces.

Special churches

The seat of the archbishop is the Cathédrale Sacré-Coeur in Brazzaville, founded in 1887 by Monseigneur Augouard.

Bishops

Ordinaries
  • Vicar Apostolic of French Congo
    • Antoine-Marie-Hippolyte Carrie, C.S.Sp. 1886.06.08 – 1890.10.14, appointed Vicar Apostolic of Lower French Congo {Congo Francese Inferiore}
  • Vicar Apostolic of Upper French Congo (Roman rite)
  • Vicars Apostolic of Brazzaville
    • Firmin-Jules Guichard, C.S.Sp. 1922.06.12 – 1936.04.27
    • Paul Joseph Biéchy, C.S.Sp. 1936.01.27 – 1954
    • Michel-Jules-Joseph-Marie Bernard, C.S.Sp. 1954.07.18 – 1955.09.14; see below
  • Metropolitan Archbishops of Brazzaville
    • Michel-Jules-Joseph-Marie Bernard, C.S.Sp. 1955.09.14 – 1964.05.02; see above
    • Théophile Mbemba 1964.05.23 – 1971.06.14
    • Emile Biayenda 1971.06.14 – 1977.03.23 (Cardinal in 1973)
    • Barthélémy Batantu 1978.11.15 – 2001.01.23
    • Anatole Milandou since 2001.01.23

Coadjutor archbishops
  • Théophile Mbemba (1961-1964)
  • Émile Biayenda (1970-1971); later cardinal
  • Bienvenu Manamika Bafouakouahou (18 April 2020[3] – present)

Auxiliary bishop
  • Anatole Milandou (1983-1987), appointed Bishop of Kinkala (later returned here as Archbishop)

Other priest of this diocese who became bishop
  • Urbain Ngassongo, appointed Bishop of Gamboma in 2013

Suffragan Dioceses
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gollark: Then we enter phase 2: apioformicization.
gollark: Well, they will AFTER the guessing phase.
gollark: ++exec```pythonprint("\n".join([f"what about #{n}" for n in range(1, 19)]))```
gollark: Obviously LyricLy did #17.

See also
  • Roman Catholicism in the Republic of the Congo
  • List of Roman Catholic dioceses in the Republic of the Congo

Sources
  1. "Archdiocese of Brazzaville". catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  2. "Metropolitan Archdiocese of Brazzaville". GCatholic.org. Retrieved 2013-06-18.
  3. "Rinunce e nomine, 18.04.2020" (Press release). Holy See Press Office. 18 April 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2020.

Bibliography
  • Maria Petringa, Brazza, A Life for Africa, Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4259-1198-0

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