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Brief Profile of the Diocese of Damongo, Ghana
Damongo Diocese was erected in February 1995, carved out of the Archdiocese of Tamale. It is a rural diocese and is coterminous with the five most deprived civil districts of our country. The diocese is ethnically diverse (over 23 known tribes). It has a population of about half a million (500,000) people. More than 86% of the Diocese’s population lives in rural communities with populations under 1000 people. The economic and social infrastructure in the area is highly underdeveloped. Subsistence farming is the mainstay of majority of the people, about 78.5% of the population. Education in general is very poor in this part of the country due to lack of facilities and also the resources for parents to send their wards to school. As a result there is a very high illiteracy rate, 80.% among women and 73% among men.. Poverty in the area is extremely high and there are practically no formal income and employment opportunities.
The mission of the Diocese is primary evangelization, with a Catholic population of 26,504 with high prospects for evangelization. The predominant faiths in the area are African Traditional Religion (animists) and Islam. 80% of the population is animists – worshippers of African Traditional Religion, who are open to Christianity. Over 65% of the Catholics are young people of school going and unemployed. The diocese has thirteen (13) rural parishes with over160 mission stations, being served by 47 priests (45 indigenous and 2 religious), six (6) religious men and 29 religious women, two (2) lay mission helpers, and 25 catechists. Preparations are underway to creating new parishes. There are fourteen (14) seminarians in training for the priesthood.
Our main challenges as a rural diocese include:
Lack of basic administrative infrastructure and institutions needed to carry out our mission of primary evangelization.
A very young Catholic population. Between 60% to 70% of the Catholics are young people of school going and unemployed.
Lack of churches (chapels) in our mission stations (village communities)
Poor educational facilities education, the result being 95% illiteracy among women and 74% among men.
Lack of health facilities and poor health care delivery systems
A multi-ethnic populace (23 ethnic groups)
Rain fed subsistent farming is the mainstay of the people (90%)
The aggressive propagation of Islam in the villages through the construction of mosques.
The pastoral priorities of the church include: education and human promotion of the youth; faith formation of the laity, youth and families; formation of agents of evangelisation i.e formation of catechists, outstation prayer leaders, and seminarians for the work of primary evangelization; drilling boreholes to provide potable drinking water for the people; building of health care facilities in our deprived communities; building of small Churches in the mission stations (villages) as places of worship and visible signs of the presence of the church; promote peacebuilding, rural development and co-existence among the 23 ethnic groups living together in the diocese.
-Fr. Daniel F. Saaka
