Bariadi, 08 January, 2026 / 11:50 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Leo XIV has erected the Catholic Diocese of Bariadi as the 36th Episcopal See in Tanzania, carved out from the Catholic Diocese of Shinyanga of the East African nation.
In the Holy See Press Office’s Thursday, January 8 publication announcing the erection of Tanzania’s newest Catholic Diocese, the Holy Father also appointed Bishop Prosper Baltazar Lyimo, who has been serving as Auxiliary Bishop of Arusha Archdiocese, the pioneer Local Ordinary of Bariadi Diocese.
The newly established Bariadi Diocese becomes the eighth Suffragan Diocese of the Metropolitan See of Mwanza alongside Bukoba, Bunda, Geita, Kayanga, Musoma, Rulenge-Ngara, and Shinyanga.
According to the Vatican January 2026 statistics, the newly erected Tanzanian Diocese that measures 16,638 km² starts with 366,000 Catholics out of 1,221,540 people, representing 29.96 percent of the total population of the territory of the Episcopal See.
Set to temporarily have St. John the Evangelist in the city of Bariadi as its Cathedral, awaiting the completion of the Church dedicated to St. Luke, the newly erected Diocese has 19 Parishes, 43 Priests, 35 of them Diocesan, and eight members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL).
