Roman Catholic Diocese of Butare

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Butare is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Rwanda. It was erected on 11 September 1961 as the Diocese of Astrida by Pope John XXIII, and was later renamed as the Diocese of Butare on 12 November 1963 by Pope Paul VI. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Kigali.

Diocese of Butare Dioecesis Butarensis
Easter Mass 2021 at Butare
Location
Country	Rwanda
Ecclesiastical province	Southern
Statistics
Area	1,958 km2 (756 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2021) 1,269,540 691,850(est.) (54.5%%)
Parishes	26
Information
Denomination	Catholic Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Jean Bosco Ntagungira
Bishops emeritus	Philippe Rukamba
Website
www.butarecatholicdiocese.com

Philippe Rukamba was appointed Bishop of Butare by Pope John Paul II on 2 January 1997.

A prominent priest of this diocese was Msgr Eulad Rudahunga, serving from 1953 to 2019, and made a Monsignor by Pope John Paul II.

On 12 August 2024, Pope Francis appointed Jean Bosco Ntagungira as bishop.

Bishops

List of bishops of Butare

• Jean-Baptiste Gahamanyi (1961–1997)
• Philippe Rukamba (1997–2024)
• Jean Bosco Ntagungira (2024-Present)

Auxiliary Bishop

• Félicien Muvara (1988), did not take effect

External links

• Roman-Catholic-Diocese-of-Butare ^{[self-published]}
• Catholic-Hierarchy ^{[self-published]}
• GCatholic.org ^{[self-published]}