The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oyo ()) is a Latin

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. It still depends on the missionary

Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP; ) was a congregation of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church in Rome, responsible for missionary work and related activities. It is also known by its former title, the Sacred Congrega ...

History

The

Apostolic Prefecture An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...

of Oyo was erected on territory split from the Apostolic Vicariate of Lagos on March 3, 1949. On January 18, 1963 it was promoted to the Diocese of Oyo, with the Archdiocese of

as its

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

. On March 3, 1995, portions of the Diocese were removed to the Diocese of Osgobo.

Special churches

The bishops' seat is

Oyo Cathedral Oyo can refer to: Places Nigeria * Oyo Empire, a former Yoruba state that covered parts of Nigeria and Benin, or the capital city * Oyo State, a present-day state of Nigeria named after the Oyo Empire * Oyo, Oyo State, a city founded in the 1830 ...

, otherwise the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

Our Lady of the Assumption The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...

in Oyo.

Statistics

In 2014, it pastorally served 36,542

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

(1.7% of the population) in a 18,000 km² (6,900 sq mi) area, mostly

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. It has 28 parishes and 3 missions with 51 priests (48 diocesan, 3 religious), 44 lay religious (3 brothers, 41 sisters) and 17 seminarians. As of 2004, it consisted of 26

parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

served by 47

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, ...

and 43

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

Bishops

(all

Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...

) ;''Apostolic Prefect of Oyo'' * Father Owen McCoy,

White Fathers The White Fathers (), officially known as the Missionaries of Africa (), and abbreviated MAfr, are a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life of pontifical right (for men). They were founded in 1868 by Charles-Martial Allemand-Lavigerie, who w ...

(M. Afr.) (1 April 1949 – 18 January 1963 ''see below''

↓ The arrow symbol ↓ may refer to: * The downward direction, a relative direction * The keyboard cursor control key, an arrow key * A downwards arrow, a Unicode arrow symbol * Logical NOR, operator which produces a result that is the negation of ...

) ;''Suffragan Bishops of Oyo'' * Owen McCoy, M. Afr. ( ↑ ''see above'' 18 January 1963 – retired 12 April 1973) * Julius Babatunde Adelakun (13 April 1973 – retired 4 November 2009); previously

Auxiliary Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of Oyo and

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Thunigaba (16 November 1972 – 13 April 1973) *

Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo is a Nigerian Catholic Church, Catholic prelate who has served as the Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Oyo, Oyo Diocese. Badejo was ordained a priest by Julius Babatunde Adelakun on 4 January 1986 and was appointed the ...

(4 November 2009 – ), succeeding as former

Coadjutor Bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of Oyo (14 August 2007 – 4 November 2009)

Coadjutor Bishop

(2007-2009)

Auxiliary Bishops

* Julius Babatunde Adelakun (1972-1973), appointed Bishop * Anthony Olubunmi Okogie (1971-1972), appointed auxiliary bishop of Lagos; future Cardinal

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

*Gabriel ’Leke Abegunrin, appointed Bishop of Osogbo in 1995 *Francis Obafemi Adesina (priest, 1989-1995), appointed Bishop of Ijebu-Ode in 2019 *Paul Adegboyega Olawoore, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Ilorin in 2018 *John Akinkunmi Oyejola, appointed Bishop of Osogbo in 2016

References

External links and sources

GCatholic.org

Roman Catholic dioceses in Nigeria Christian organizations established in 1949 Roman Catholic dioceses and prelatures established in the 20th century 1949 establishments in Nigeria Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Ibadan {{Nigeria-RC-diocese-stub