03/07/2024
Pope Francis Erects New Diocese in South Sudan, Appoints First Bishop
Bishop Christian Carlassare, appointed pioneer Bishop of the newly created Catholic Diocese of Bentiu in South Sudan on 3 July 2024. Credit: ACI Africa
By Silas Isenjia
Rumbek, 03 July, 2024 / 3:59 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has erected the Catholic Diocese of Bentiu in South Sudan and appointed Bishop Christian Carlassare, who is currently serving as the Local Ordinary of the country’s Rumbek Diocese as its pioneer Bishop.
The er****on of the new Catholic Diocese in Africa’s youngest nation was made public by the Holy See Press office on Wednesday, July 3.
The Holy Father erected the Diocese of Bentiu with territory dismembered from the Diocese of Malakal, making it a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Juba.
The newly erected South Sudanese Diocese measures 37836 square kilometers. It has a population of 1,131.886 of which 621,643 are Catholic faithful, representing 54.92 percent of the total population of the territory of the Diocese, according to the Holy See report.
Bishop Carlassare, the pioneer Bishop of the new Diocese, who has been at the helm of Rumbek Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination in March 2022 was born in the Diocese of Vicenza in Italy in October 1977. He was ordained a Priest of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus in September 2004.
