Qualla: Diocese of Rumbek

Diocese of Rumbek: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. From 1974 to 1981, the entire Catholic Diocese of Rumbek - a territory larger than Switzerland, serving a population estimated at 1.5 million - had exactly one priest. His name was Father Raphael Riel, and he covered ground that today is divided among eleven parishes and some 150 chapels and prayer stations. How a single man did this work, and why the work survived at all, is the story of one of the more remarkable Catholic jurisdictions in the world.

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

Diocese of Rumbek: Comboni's Shadow

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Catholic mission to this part of Africa goes back to Saint Daniele Comboni, an Italian priest called the 'Apostle of Africa,' who lived at the Holy Cross mission in Shambe on the western bank of the Nile in 1857-58. From Shambe, Comboni dreamed of a mission to the Black peopl...

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

Diocese of Rumbek: One Priest, A Territory the Size of Switzerland

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rigan123, CC BY-SA 4.0. Less than a year after the Vicariate's establishment, power in Sudan shifted from the British to Arabic-speaking northern elites based in Khartoum. The Southern Sudanese resistance began - first the Anyanya rebels (1955-1972), then the SPLA from 1983 until the Comprehensive Peace...

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Image: Rigan123 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Diocese of Rumbek: Cardboard Cathedrals

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Father Giuseppe Pellerino, who served as Apostolic Administrator from 1983 to 1990, was held in captivity for 112 days in 1986. Upon his release, he returned to Tonj to continue his work. In the same year, the two local clergy - there were only two - fled the civil war, taking ma...

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

Diocese of Rumbek: Thirteen Days of Independence

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kai Breker, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bishop Mazzolari led the Diocese until his death on July 16, 2011, exactly one week after the Republic of South Sudan obtained its independence on July 9, 2011. Whatever he had felt during those thirteen days - the ordination of a country he had served through two civil wars and ...

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Image: Kai Breker | CC BY-SA 3.0

Diocese of Rumbek: A Diocese Lived, Not Drawn

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the Diocese of Rumbek covers the whole of Lakes State and the southern part of Warrap State - around 65,000 square kilometers. Eleven missions serve a population of 1.5 million. The missions' names carry their own layered history: Daniel Comboni at Marial Lou and at Warrap,...

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0