During the October 2012 Synod of Bishops on New Evangelization held in Rome, Bishop Tiama, then President of the Episcopal Conference of Mali, presented the challenge of evangelization in the majority Muslim country where “just 3 to 5 percent” of the population is Christian.
The situation in the country, according to the Prelate, was stable until 2011 when a rebellion “helped by the Islamist movements armed and supported by Al Qaeda broke out in the north.”
“This movement occupies two-thirds of the country and threatens democracy and the existence of other religions,” Bishop Tiama testified to the Synod participants, adding that the movement also “extols the establishment of Islamic law in the entire country.”
The 65-year-old Malian Prelate has been instrumental in advocating for the release of Sr. Gloria Cecilia Narváez Argoti, a Colombian missionary who was kidnapped from the diocese on February 8, 2017 by jihadists.
On February 7, 2020, the Bishop led Christians in the country in offering prayers for the safe release of the nun, believed to have been kidnapped by members of the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (SGIM), a branch of Al Qaeda based in the Mali.
Following a plea-for-release video by the nun in February 2018, Bishop Tiama told Fides News Agency, “We have seen the video and we are happy to know she is alive and this urges us to continue our prayers and efforts for her release."
Mopti diocese was erected on June 9, 1942 as an Apostolic Prefecture, and elevated to the rank of a diocese on September 29, 1964.
The diocese, which is under the Bamako Metropolitan See measures 896,384 square kilometers and has a 1.2 percent Catholic population, according to 2017 statistics.
The diocese is under the patronage of St. Joseph.
