The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mogadishu () is a

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 ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

located in the city of

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

. The area of the diocese coincides with that of the country. It is the only diocese in Somalia. The see has been vacant since the assassination of the last bishop, Salvatore Colombo, in 1989. The diocese is a member of the Conference of the Latin Bishops of the Arab Regions.

History

In the pre-independence period,

British Somaliland British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate (), was a protectorate of the United Kingdom in modern Somaliland. It was bordered by Italian Somalia, French Somali Coast and Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia (Italian Ethiopia from 1936 ...

was under the care of the Apostolic Vicariate of Arabia, like the Apostolic Vicariate of the Galla (including French Somaliland as well as its

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

n main territory) confided to the Order of Friars ''Cappuccini''. Italian Somaliland was from 1904 the "Prefecture Apostolic of Benadir", and entrusted to the ancient Trinitarian Order. In 1927, it was promoted to Apostolic Vicariate. * 1904: Established as Apostolic Prefecture of Benadir * 1927: Promoted as Apostolic Vicariate of Mogadishu * 1975: Promoted as Diocese of Mogadishu

Bishops

Prefects Apostolic of Benadir

# Alessandro dei Santi (1905–1924) # (

Apostolic administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

, 1924 – 22 December 1927)

Vicars Apostolic of Mogadishu

# (22 December 1927 – August 1930) # (14 July 1931 – 24 May 1932) # (23 May 1933 – 19 October 1970) # (19 October 1970 – 1 January 1973)

Bishops of Mogadishu

# Salvatore Colombo (20 November 1975 – 9 July 1989) # Giorgio Bertin (Apostolic administrator, 29 April 1990 – 13 January 2024) # Jamal Khader Daibes (Apostolic administrator, 13 January 2024 – present)

Sources