Pope Leo XIV Appoints Apostolic Administrator of Uganda’s Jinja Diocese after Bishop’s Burial

Jinja, 30 October, 2025 / 8:28 PM

The Holy Father has appointed the Archbishop of Uganda’s Tororo Metropolitan See as the Apostolic Administrator of the Catholic Diocese of Jinja.

In a statement on Wednesday, October 29, the Apostolic Nunciature in Uganda announced that Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Emmanuel Obbo to serve as Apostolic Administrator of the Jinja Diocese “sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis.”

The appointment of the Member of the Congregation of the Apostles of Jesus Missionaries (AJ) follows the passing on of the Local Ordinary of the Jinja Episcopal See, Bishop Charles Martin Wamika, on October 29 at the age of 72.

The late Bishop Wamika, who was laid to rest on Tuesday, October 28, began his Episcopal Ministry as Auxiliary Bishop of the Tororo Metropolitan See in February 1994 and has been at the helm of the Jinja Diocese since his appointment in March 2010.

He was ordained to the Priesthood for the East African nation’s Catholic Archdiocese of Tororo in September 1979 at the age of 26.

In the October 29 statement that the Chargé d’Affaires, Fr. Georges Kwani Kouwonou, signed, the Apostolic Nunciature in Uganda thanks “the Board of Consultors of Jinja for ensuring the governance of the Diocese since the certain notification of the death of Bishop Wamika.”

It further expresses gratitude to the newly appointed Apostolic Administrator and “invokes abundant blessings upon his Pastoral Ministry” in the Jinja Episcopal See.

Consecrated a Bishop in October 2007, Archbishop Obbo began his Episcopal Ministry in the Catholic Diocese of Soroti, where he served for seven years before being appointed in January 2014 to shepherd the Tororo Metropolitan See.

The Jinja Episcopal See, where the Holy Father has appointed him to temporarily take care of the people of God, has 33 Parishes, 87 Diocesan Priests, 62 Religious Priests as well as 719 women and men Religious.

Jinja Diocese covers 8,917 km² and has a total population of 4,750,000 people, 960,100 of them Catholic, who represent 20.2 percent of the population, according to the 2024 Holy See report.