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Catholic Bishop of DR. Congo’s Kabinda Diocese Appointed Archbishop for Kananga

Bishop Félicien Ntambue Kasembe. Credit: Vatican Media

Pope Francis has transferred the Local Ordinary of Kabinda Diocese in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the country’s Kananga Archdiocese, where he will serve as Archbishop.

The latest administrative changes in the Central African nation regarding the appointment of Archbishop-elect Félicien Ntambue Kasembe were made public by the Holy See Press office on Tuesday, March 19, the Solemnity of St. Joseph.

The Congolese Catholic Archdiocese has been vacant since 21 December 2022 following the retirement of Archbishop Marcel Madila Basanguka, who had been at the helm of the Archdiocese since December 2006.

Born in September 1970 in Kabinda Diocese, the Archbishop-elect who has been at the helm of his native Diocese since September 2020 took his Perpetual Vows in the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) in 1996.

A native of Lomami Province in DRC, Archbishop-elect Kasembe was ordained a Priest for in August 2001 after completing his theological and philosophical studies.

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He obtained a Baccalaureate in Civil Law from the Jesuit Notre Dame de la Paix Catholic University in Namur, Belgium, in 2009.

The Congolese Archbishop-elect also holds a Master’s degree in Civil Law from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve and a Master’s degree in Human Rights from the Faculty of Law Saint Louis in Brussels.

As a Priest, he served in various capacities including Provincial Secretary and Rector of the Scheutist Missionaries in Kinshasa; Director of the Pedagogical Research Center in Kinshasa; and Secretary of the Provincial Commission for Finance of the Scheutists, among other responsibilities.

He had his missionary and pastoral internship in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mongolia and since December 2022, he has been serving as the Apostolic Administrator of Kananga Archdiocese.

Archbishop-elect Kasembe is expected to become the eighth Local Ordinary of the 33,000 square Kilometre Metropolitan See that was erected in March 2004 as the Vicariate Apostolic of Belgian Congo before being elevated to Archdiocese in August 1972.

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The Archdiocese that has Kabinda, Kole, Luebo Luiza, Mbujimayi,  Mweka, Tshilomba, and Tshumbe as suffragan Dioceses has 2,531,995 Catholics, representing 59.6 percent of the Metropolitan See’s  total population, according to 2021 statistics.

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.