Diocese of Wa, Ghana

Continent: Western and Northern Africa

Rite: Roman (Latin)

Type: Diocese Diocese

Name: Wa / Vaën(sis) (Latin)

Ecclesiastical Province: Tamale

Depends on: Dicastery for Evangelisation

Celebrations

Liturgical Calendar (Universal) 📅

History

1959.11.03: Established as Diocese of Wa / Vaën(sis) (Latin) (from Diocese of Tamale and became suffragan of Cape Coast)
1977.05.30: Became suffragan of Tamale

Present Prelates

Bishop:

vacant

Ordinaries

Bishops of Wa (Roman Rite)

Cardinal Richard Kuuia Baawobr, M. Afr.
(2016.02.17 – 2022.11.27)

Servus misericordiæ Dei

Born:	1959.06.21 (Tom-Zendagangn, Ghana)
Ordained Priest:	1987.07.18
Consecrated Bishop:	2016.05.07
Created Cardinal:	2022.08.27
Died:	2022.11.27 (Roma, Italy † 63)

Priest of Kinshasa (Congo-Kinshasa) (1987.07.18 – 2016.02.17)

Superior General of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) (2010.05.31 – 2016.02.17)

Vice-Grand Chancellor of Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (2010.05.31 – 2016.02.17)

Bishop of Wa (Ghana) (2016.02.17 – 2022.11.27)

President of Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (2022.08.01 – 2022.11.27)

Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria Immacolata di Lourdes a Boccea (2022.08.27 – 2022.11.27)

Bishop Paul Bemile (83)
(1994.12.19 – 2016.02.17)

Bishop emeritus of Wa (Ghana)

Born:	1939.12.20 (Kokoligu, Ghana)
Ordained Priest:	1968.08.03
Consecrated Bishop:	1995.03.25

Priest of Wa (Ghana) (1968.08.03 – 1994.12.19)

Bishop of Wa (Ghana) (1994.12.19 – 2016.02.17)

Bishop Gregory Ebolawola Kpiebaya (later Archbishop)
(1974.11.18 – 1994.03.26)

Same mind as Christ Jesus

Born:	1933 (Kaleo, Ghana)
Ordained Priest:	1962.09.08
Consecrated Bishop:	1975.03.15
Died:	2022.05.31 (Tamale, Ghana † 88)

Bishop of Wa (Ghana) (1974.11.18 – 1994.03.26)

Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale (Ghana) (1994.03.26 – 2009.02.12)

Bishop Peter Proeku Dery (later Cardinal)
(1960.03.16 – 1974.11.18)

Apostolus Jesu Christi

Born:	1918.05.10 (Ko, Ghana)
Ordained Priest:	1951.02.11
Consecrated Bishop:	1960.05.08
Created Cardinal:	2006.03.24
Died:	2008.03.06 (Tamale, Ghana † 89)

Priest of Tamale (Ghana) (1951.02.11 – 1960.03.16)

Bishop of Wa (Ghana) (1960.03.16 – 1974.11.18)

Apostolic Administrator of Tamale (Ghana) (1972 – 1974.11.18)

Bishop of Tamale (Ghana) (1974.11.18 – 1977.05.30)

Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale (Ghana) (1977.05.30 – 1994.03.26)

President of Ghana Bishops’ Conference (1982 – 1988)

Cardinal-Deacon of S. Elena fuori Porta Prenestina (2006.03.24 [2006.03.28] – 2008.03.06)

Special Churches

Cathedral: St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Wa, Upper West
Minor Basilica: Basilica of St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus, Nandom, Upper West

Statistics (2016.12.31)

Area: 18,478 km²

Population: 422,000 Catholics (43.7% of 964,800 total)

Pastoral Centres: 25 parishes

Personnel: 94 priests (90 diocesan, 4 religious), 190 religious (38 brothers, 152 sisters), 29 seminarians