Catholic Bishops in Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone Reminisce about “good old days” Together, Move to Merge Conferences

Banjul, 29 January, 2026 / 5:34 PM

Members of the Inter-Territorial Catholic Bishops' Conference (ITCABIC) of The Gambia and Sierra Leone who met for their Plenary Assembly between January 18-25 in Sierra Leone’s Catholic Diocese of Makeni, have resolved to merge with their peers in Liberia.

The decision, ITCABIC’s President said at the end of the assembly, had been arrived at after lengthy deliberations, and the longing to bring back the collaboration that the three countries enjoyed in the past.

Bishop Gabriel Mendy in The Gambia said that Priests and Bishops who went to the Seminary while the three countries collaborated in Formation often reminisced about their “good old days”, and wanted the collaboration back.

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Banjul said that the Bishops had decided to merge ITCABIC with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Liberia (CABICOL), and that the decision was awaiting Vatican’s approval. “It is a decision and a resolution but it has not yet gone into effect,” the ITCABIC President said during the Plenary’s closing Mass on Monday, January 26.

“We need to submit this decision through the Nuncio to Rome for the Vatican to give its approval. We will then work on the statutes of the conference. We have actually constituted a body towards that. Once those statutes have been endorsed, they will come into effect,” he said.

Bishop Mendy said that the planned merger is “good for us, and good for everybody,” adding, “We cannot continue to have two conferences or different dioceses existing on their own within our conference. This unity worked out well in the past, when we were one conference, and the older Priests went through that kind of formation.”

He said that Priests in The Gambia, in Liberia and in Sierra Leone who were formed together “sometimes sit down and recall the good old days in Gbarnga (Liberia) and in Makeni.”

“That is what we want to relive, and provide a prophetic witness of how the Body of Christ is one,” the Bishop of Banjul said.

In a communique that was shared with ACI Africa following the ITCABIC Plenary, Bishop Mendy said that the merger was initiated by a delegation from CABICOL that graced the Plenary in Makeni.

In the Plenary, ITCABIC and CABICOL discussed issues regarding the possible merger of both Conferences and their institutions in the three countries.

To enhance this merger, the Bishops in the three countries resolved to have Philosophical studies in Liberia, Theological studies in Sierra Leone and the Spiritual Year in The Gambia.

The Bishops decided that the name of the conference bringing together the three countries will be ‘Catholic Bishops' Conference of The Gambia, Liberia and Sierra Leone (CBCGLS)’.

“With the upcoming Ad Limina Apostolorum visit to Rome, we prayed for a successful merger of the two Conferences,” reads the communique shared with ACI Africa on Wednesday, January 28.

In his address at the Plenary’s concluding Mass, Bishop Mendy said that the merger is a long-term plan. “We had discussed it earlier, and even though we have already made a decision, we still have a long way to go.”

He said that the goal is unity and collaboration among the three countries the new Conference brings together.

According to the Bishop, the merger provides “a prophetic witness that there is unity among members of the Church and at the wider level of humanity.”

“We are God’s children, and we need to bear witness to that in spite of our differences,” he said, and added, “We don’t want to go along with our political leaders and those who want to create division. There may be national boundaries, but we must go beyond them and be part and parcel of this Body of Christ in one conference. It is in that context that we came to our decision.”

The motto of the new Conference is ‘Walking Together’.

Bishop Mendy admitted that the merger is a bold decision that he said may have implications.

“It is not going to be easy. That is why we continue to trust in God’s assistance, our own resolve and the goodwill of others,” he said.