KENYA: Isiolo Diocese Set for Installation of the First Bishop
Bishop Anthony Ireri
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
The Catholic Diocese of Isiolo located in the upper eastern region of Kenya, will on Saturday, April 22, have installation of the first Bishop for the recently elevated Diocese, at St. Eusebius Cathedral Isiolo.
Bishop Anthony Ireri Mukobo who has been the Vicar Apostolic for Isiolo Vicariate since 2006 will be installed by the Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya Archbishop Hubertus van Megen who will be the main celebrant.
on Wednesday, February 15, Pope Francis elevated the Apostolic Vicariate of Isiolo to a fully-fledged Diocese and appointed Bishop Ireri as the first Local Ordinary of the new diocese.
The events for the installation will begin on Friday, April 21, with vespers in the evening, followed with Installation on Saturday and thanks giving Mass for the Bishop on April 23, the third Sunday of Easter.
As Apostolic Vicariate, Isiolo was Created in December 1995, from the Catholic Diocese of Meru and is one of the suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese of Nyeri.
Bishop Ireri, a member of the Consolata Missionaries (IMC), has been overseeing the administration of the newly created Diocese since his appointed-on 25th January 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI following the death of Bishop Luigi Locati on 14th July 2005 who was the Vicar Apostolic since 1995.
In an earlier interview with AMECEA Online, Sr. Scholastica Kasisi Pius who works in the tribunal office for the Archdiocese of Nairobi as a Judge, explained that Apostolic Vicariate are “Territories formally called mission territories which depend on the congregation for the Evangelization of People.”
According to the Kenyan nun a member of the Little Sisters of St. Joseph (LSSJ) who lectures at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), the head of an Apostolic Vicariate may be a bishop or not, though according to law his role is equivalent to a Diocesan Bishop.
“The power exercised by an Apostolic Vicar is vicarious and unlike the Diocesan Bishop, the Apostolic Vicar has ordinary power in their territories, but this power is vicarious, not proper. That is, they exercise their power not on their own name but in that of the Supreme Pontiff,”
