Pope Francis has named Fr. Vincent Kirabo as bishop of Hoima, Uganda.
Vincent Kirabo was born in Kyanaisoke, Uganda, in 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1979.
He holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Portland in the United States, and a licentiate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Urbanian University, Rome. He has served in a number of roles in the Diocese of Hoima, including teacher and rector of the minor seminary, director of the diocesan commission for vocations, parish vicar, diocesan administrator for finance, parish priest, and teacher and bursar at the Uganda Martyrs National Minor Seminary Alokolum, Gulu. He is currently a teacher at the St. Mary’s National Major Seminary Ggaba, Kampala.
The Diocese of Hoima has a popultion of just over 2 million with about half of them (1.1 million) being Catholic. They are served by just around 130 priests and that same number of religious.
The diocese has been without an ordinary since early 2014, when Bishop Deogratias Dr. Muganwa Byabazaire passed away.
In 2009, Bishop Byabazaire was diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes and a brain tumor and in the same year, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Lambert Bainomugisha, the auxiliary Bishop of Mbarara, as the Apostolic Administrator of Hoima Diocese.
