The diocese of Ifakara (in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Dioecesis Ifakarensis'') is a see of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

suffragan of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dar-es-Salaam The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dar-es-Salaam ( la, Archidioecesis Daressalaamensis) is a Latin Metropolitan archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Tanzania. The archdiocese's motherchurch and seat of its archbishop is St. Joseph's Ca ...

. In 2012, it counted 287,000 baptized people among a population of 322,779 inhabitants. Its current bishop is Salutaris Melchior Libena.

Territory

The diocese corresponds to the

Kilombero District Kilombero District is a district in Morogoro Region, south-western Tanzania. The district is situated in a vast floodplain, between the Kilombero River in the south-east and the Udzungwa-Mountains in the north-west. On the other side of the Kil ...

in the

Morogoro Region Morogoro Region (''Mkoa wa Morogoro'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Ireland. Morogoro Region is border ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

. Its see is located in the city of

Ifakara Ifakara is a small rural town in the Kilombero District, Morogoro Region, south central Tanzania. It is the headquarters of the Kilombero District administration and the main trading centre for Kilombero and Ulanga districts. The town is located ...

, where the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

of Saint Patrick stands. The territory is divided into 18 parishes.

History

The diocese was created on January 14, 2012, by the Papal bull ''Nuper est petitum'' of Pope

Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

, taking territories from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mahenge.

Chronology of the bishops

* Salutaris Melchior Libena, since January 14, 2012

Statistics

At the date of its creation, the Diocese had a population of 322,779 people among whom 287,800 were baptized, which is 88.9%. , - , 2012 , , 287.800 , , 322.779 , , 88,9 , , 62 , , 42 , , 20 , , 4.629 , , , , 3 , , 198 , , 18

External links

The diocese on Catholic-hierarchyCreation of the Diocese
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