Pope Francis appoints bishop for Nigeria’s new diocese, Katsina
By Sr. Titilayo Aduloju, SSMA
On Monday, 16 October 2023, Pope Francis appointed Rev. Gerald Mamman Musa as the first Bishop of Katsina.
By splitting the Diocese of Sokoto and converting it into a suffragan of the Metropolitan See of Kaduna, the Holy Father created the new Diocese of Katsina, Nigeria.
Bishop-elect Musa is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and Head of the Department of Pastoral/Communication Studies at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
He holds a Licentiate in Social Sciences, with a specialization in Communication, from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a Doctorate in Communication Studies from the School of Journalism and Communication of the University of Queensland in Saint Lucia, Brisbane (Australia).
Brief biography
He was born on 16 January 1971 in Gusau, Zamfara State area in the Sokoto Diocese of the Ecclesiastical province of Kaduna.
He studied at Saint Thomas Aquinas' Major Seminary in Makurdi and Saint Augustine's Major Seminary in Jos, before he was ordained on 1 June 1996, for the clergy of the Diocese of Sokoto.
Bishop-elect Musa has served as the Vicar of the Administrator of the Holy Family Cathedral, Sokoto, and Diocesan Secretary, at the Diocesan Chancellery of Sokoto (1996-2000); Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at the Sokoto State level (1998-2000).
He was an Exco member of the Nigeria Interreligious Council and parish priest of St. Patrick's in Illela, Sokoto State (2001-2003); parish priest of St. Vincent Ferrer in Malumfashi, in the State of Katsina (2007-2008)
He served as Resident priest at St. Bernard, Upper Mount Gravatt, Archdiocese of Brisbane (2008-2011); Resident Priest at the Jubilee Catholic Parish, and Assistant Chaplain at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Archdiocese of Brisbane (2011-2012); and Parish Administrator of Upper Mount Gravatt-Wishart Parish, Archdiocese of Brisbane (2012-2013).
From 2013 to date, the Bishop-elect has been a Professor and Director of the Center for Studies on African Culture and Communication (CESACC) at the Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Following his ordination, Bishop-elect Musa received a Master's degree in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and a Licentiate in Social Sciences, with a specialization in Communication, from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
He then obtained a Doctorate in Communication Studies from the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland in Saint Lucia, Brisbane, Australia.
Until his appointment as the Bishop of Katsina, he served as the Head of the Department of Pastoral/Communication Studies at the Catholic Institute of West Africa from 2021.
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