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Information reaching the executive office of RCOWACEARO NEWS AGENCY, RECONA, indicates that the President of the Burkina Faso-Niger Catholic Bishops’ Conference has been Appointed Archbishop of Bobo-Dioulasso. Details of this good news have it that Bishop Laurent Birfuoré Dabiré, the ever-smiling bishop of Dori Diocese in faraway Burkina Faso, has just been appointed Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso.

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Laurent Birfuoré Dabiré of Burkina Faso’s Dori Catholic Diocese and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Burkina Faso and Niger (CEBN) since 2019 as the new Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso.

The Holy See Press office made Bishop Dabiré’s appointment as Archbishop of Bobo-Dioulasso public on Wednesday, December 18, in a notice that also indicates that Pope Francis has accepted the retirement of Archbishop Paul Yemboaro Ouédraogo, the 76-year-old Burkinabe Church leader who has been at the helm of Bobo-Dioulasso Archdiocese since November 2010.

Born in September 1965 in Dissin in the Catholic Diocese of Diébougou, Archbishop-elect Dabiré was ordained a Priest in December 1995 for Burkina Faso’s Catholic Diocese of Diébougou.

Since his Priestly ordination, the Archbishop-elect has served in various capacities including lecturing at St. Tarcisius Minor Seminary of Diébougou Diocese and St. Jean Baptiste Wayalge Major Seminary in Ouagadougou.

The holder of a Licentiate and Doctorate in Utoque Iure from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome has also served as a lecturer of civil law at Unity University of Bamako in Mali, judicial vicar and chancellor, and an official of the Interdiocesan Tribunal of Bobo-Dioulasso.

In January 2013, Archbishop-elect Dabiré was appointed Local Ordinary of Dori Diocese for which he was Consecrated in May 2013.

The Metropolitan See of Bobo-Dioulasso was erected as the Apostolic Prefecture of Bobo-Dioulasso from the Apostolic Vicariate of Bamako, Mali, and the Apostolic Vicariate of Ouagadougou in December 1927 before being elevated to Bobo-Dioulasso Diocese in September 1955.

Since December 2000, the Burkinabe Archdiocese has measured 24,415 square kilometers and has a Catholic population of 219,000, which represents 10.7 percent of the total population, according to 2022 statistics.

The Metropolitan See is under the patronage of Our Lady of Lourdes and has five suffragan Dioceses, including Banfora, Dédougou, Diébougou, Gaoua, and Nouna.

Rev. Fr. George Nwachukwu
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