He reigned during a period of great change and ferment in the C… John Paul Ii, Karol Wojtyla (born 1920), cardinal of Krakow, Poland, was elected the 263rd pope in 1978, the first ever of Slavic extraction. Paul VI (1897-1978) became pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 1963. Annuario Pontifico has statistics annually on all dioceses, vicariates and prefectures. Annuaire des Dioc èses d'Expression Fran çaise pour l'Afrique …et Madagascar (Paris 1955 –). 16, 2001, with the visit of a papal envoy.īibliography: Bilan du Monde 2:440 –444. The country celebrated its first century of evangelization on Jan. In addition to running several primary and secondary schools in the predominately Catholic sections of Burkina Faso, the Church operated five radio stations and published a number of evangelical periodicals. By 2000 Burkina Faso had 115 parishes, 374 secular and 144 religious priests, 145 brothers, and 990 sisters. In addition to advocating for the forgiveness of this debt, the pope aggressively addressed the threats posed by the encroachment of the Sahara through the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel.īeginning in 1996, Cor Unum, the Pope's private charity, donated millions of dollars to both promote irrigation and combat the poverty, hunger, and health risks caused by desertification.Īlthough religious groups were required to register with the government, Burkina Faso's constitution of June 2, 1991, respected religious freedom. Despite efforts at improving the quality of life for its citizens, during the 1990s the government was burdened by a failing economy and a large external debt due to its long-term reliance on foreign aid. In 1980 and again ten years later Burkina Faso celebrated visits by Pope John Paul II, who encouraged the region's Catholics to reach out to those of other faiths. A succession of military dictatorships would follow until 1991, when the country held its first multi-party election and established a new constitution and a parliamentary government. In 1960 Burkina Faso gained its independence, but was torn by a military coup a decade later. Another African, Paul Zoungrana (1917 –2000), became archbishop of Ouagadougou in 1960 and served as cardinal from 1965 to 1995. In 1955 the Archdiocese of Ouagadougou was created and made the single metropolitan see.ĭieudonn é Yougbar é was made bishop of Koup éla in 1956, the first native of West Africa to receive episcopal consecration. A minor seminary opened in 1926, and a major one in 1942. Conversions were most common among the Mossi, who had previously accepted Islam. ![]() The first Burkinabe baptisms were in 1905. ![]() Catholic evangelization began almost immediately after the French arrived, when the Algerian-based White Fathers (now the missionaries of africa) traveled from Sudan and Dahomey (modern Benin) and founded missions at Koup éla (1900) and Ouagadougou (1901). In 1897 the French entered the region and incorporated Burkina Faso first into French Sudan (now Mali) and then as Upper Volta. Muslim influence dates from the 11th century, when Burkina Faso was ruled by competing Mossi states. Other tribes include the Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, Mande, and Fulani.Įcclesiastically, the Archdiocese of Ouagadougou oversees the diocese of Bobo-Dioulasso, Di ébougou, Fada N'Gourma, Kaya, Koudougou, Koup éla, Manga, Nouna-D édougou, Ouahigouya, and Banfora. Nearly half the Burkinabe population are Mossi, who controlled the area until the late 19th century. ![]() The region's 160 or so ethnic groups, very unequal in size, comprise three main families. One of the poorest nations in the world, Burkina Faso was a French territory until 1960. ![]() Although natural resources include marble, gold, and manganese and zinc deposits, the country's impoverished population engages in subsistence agriculture while serving as migratory labor to surrounding nations. A vast plateau, 650 to 1,000 feet in elevation, Burkina Faso has seen increasing desertification due to the encroachment of the Sahara Desert. Bordered on the west and north by Mali, it shares its eastern border with Niger and Benin, its southern border with Togo, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast. Formerly called Upper Volta, the Republic of Burkina Faso is located in West Africa.
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