• The news of the appointment of Bishop-Elect Joseph Mwongela was officially made public in Rome on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
• Mwongela will be replacing Rev. Anthony Muheria who was transferred by the Pope to the Archdiocese of Nyeri on April 23, 2017.
Image: COURTESY.
Pope Francis has appointed Rev Fr Joseph Mwongela as the Fourth Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kitui.
The news of the appointment of Bishop-Elect Joseph Mwongela was officially made public in Rome on Tuesday.
The letter of his appointment was sent to the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) by the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya, Archbishop Hubertus van Megen.
Mwongela will be replacing Rev. Anthony Muheria who was transferred by the Pope to the Archdiocese of Nyeri on April 23, 2017.
Muheria served as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Kitui since April 2017.
Bishop-Elect Mwongela is currently serving as the Vicar General of Kitui. He was first appointed as Second Vicar General on March 6, 2015.
As Vicar General, Bishop-Elect Mwongela has been in charge of priestly personnel and conduct, pastoral, education, health, development, diocesan communication, and youth chaplaincy matters.
He is a member of the Boards of Caritas Kitui, Muthale Mission Hospital and St. Teresa’s Catechetical Training Centre, among others.
According to the KCCB, the Bishop-Elect Joseph Mwongela was born on April 7, 1968, in Kakumi, Diocese of Kitui.
He attended the preparatory year at Saint Mary’s Senior Seminary, Molo, in the Diocese of Nakuru (1989). He carried out his studies in philosophy at Saint Augustine’s Senior Seminary Mabanga, in the Diocese of Bungoma (1990-1991) and in theology at St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in Nairobi (1992-1995).
He was ordained a priest on September 7, 1996, for the Diocese of Kitui.
From 2003 to 2008 he studied in Rome where he was awarded a licentiate from the Pontifical Gregorian University (2003-2006) and a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the Angelicum (2005-2008).
He went on to serve as Chaplain of the Mater Misericordiae Hospital in Kitui (2008); parish priest of Muthale parish (2008-2013); Director of the Saint John Paul II Institute of Professional Studies and parish priest of the Boma parish (Our Lady of Africa Cathedral); and Vicar general of the diocese of Kitui (since 2015).
The 57-year-old Catholic Diocese of Kitui was started in 1963 with Rev. William Dunne as the first Bishop.
The second Bishop was the late Archbishop Boniface Lele who was appointed in February, 1996. Archbishop Muheria was appointed Bishop of Kitui in 2008 where he served until April 2017 when he was transferred to the Archdiocese of Nyeri.
Details of the Installation of Bishop-Elect Joseph Mwongela will be communicated in due course.