Ecclesiastical Data

What is now the Navrongo-Bolgatanga diocese has had a history of 106 years of evangelization (1906-2012), the longest in the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province. The small detachment of the members of the Society of Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) who arrived in 1906 pioneered the evangelization of Navrongo and its environs.

From their efforts, a new ecclesiastical territory emerged, first, in the form of an Apostolic Prefecture in 1926, and then an Apostolic Vicariate in 1934. From 1950 the territory became part of the newly created diocese of Tamale. In 1956 the Diocese of Navrongo was erected, a status the territory enjoyed until 1977 when it received the new name of Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga, following the erection of the Tamale Ecclesiastical Province.

The major religions in the diocese are the African Traditional Religion, Christianity and Islam. In the Upper East part of the Diocese, the Traditional Religion remains the dominant religion (46.4) followed by Christianity (28.3%) and Islam (22.6%).

In the Northern Region part of the diocese, however, the situation is different. For instance, in the Mamprusi West/Yagiba (Walewale Parish), the dominant religion is Islam (66.7%), followed by the Traditional Religion (16.3%) and Christianity (14.4%). On the other hand, there is a balance between the three major religions in the East Mamprusi part of the diocese, i.e. Christianity, has a slight edge with (35.1%), followed closely by the Traditional Religion with (32.6%) and Islam (30.4%).

When one narrows down to Christianity, Catholics dominate (57.7%) followed closely by Pentecostal/charismatic groups (21.7%) and the protestant (12.3%). The Catholic population is served by 55 priests, 36 religious men and women, 14 full time catechists and about 220 voluntary prayer leaders.