The Holy Father has appointed as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire, the Reverend Jacques Assanvo Ahiwa, of the clergy of Grand-Bassam, currently Maître de conférences at the University of Strasbourg, assigning him the titular see of Elephantaria in Mauritania.
Reverend Jacques Assanvo Ahiwa
The Reverend Jacques Assanvo Ahiwa was born on January 6, 1969, in Kuindjabo, in the district of Aboisso, diocese of Grand-Bassam. He carried out his formation in the minor seminary of Bouaké and in the Saint Coeur de Marie Major Seminary in Anyama, archdiocese of Abidjan.
He holds a doctorate in biblical theology awarded by the University of Strasbourg in 2011. He was ordained a priest on December 13, 1997, for the diocese of Grand-Bassam.
After priestly ordination he served first as parish vicar in the parish of San François Xavier in Aboisso (1997-1998), then as secretary-general of the diocese of Grand-Bassam and diocesan director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (1998-2002). He studied for a master’s degree in biblical theology at the Université Catholique de l’Afrique d l’Ouest (U.C.A.O./U.U.A.) from 2002 to 2004, and for a doctorate in biblical theology in Strasbourg from 2004 to 2011. From 2011 to 2018 he served as vicar general of Grand-Bassam, and has held the role of Maître de conférences at the University of Strasbourg since 2018.
