CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE

OF BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE

Diocesan Feastday:  

The Immaculate Heart of Mary  

The Independent Mission of Bulawayo, separated from Salisbury Prefecture, was erected 23 December 1930 and confided to the Mariannhill Missionaries. On 13 July 1932 Bulawayo was raised to a Prefecture Apostolic and became a Vicariate Apostolic on 13 April 1937. In 1953, Hwange District and that part of Shangani District situated between Kana and Shangani River was cut off from the Bulawayo Vicariate and formed into the Wankie Prefecture. On 1 January 1955, the Vicariate Apostolic of Bulawayo was given the status of a Diocese. In 1959, Tati Concession, Botswana north of the Tropic of Capricorn, was cut off from the Diocese of Bulawayo. On 10 June 1994, the Diocese of Bulawayo was raised to a Metropolitan See with the Dioceses of Gweru and Hwange as suffragans. Since the division of Gweru diocese the suffragan Sees of the Bulawayo Province are Gweru, Hwange and Masvingo.

The Holy Father John Paul II appointed Henry E. Karlen CMM as the first Metropolitan Archbishop of Bulawayo. The Archdiocese of Bulawayo comprises the following civil districts: Bulilima, Mangwe, Nyamandhlovu, Tsholotsho, Bubi, part of Lupane and Nkayi with Shangani River as boundary, Insiza, Umzingwane, Beitbridge and Gwanda west of Umzingwane River, Matobo.

Area:                69,456 square km

Population:      1.925.000

Catholics:        140.000