AFRICA/LIBERIA - Appointment of Bishop of Gbarnga

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father Benedict XVI, on 21 March 2011, appointed as Bishop of the Diocese of Gbarnga (Liberia) Fr Anthony Fallah Borwah, from the clergy of Monrovia, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liberia and Administrator of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Monrovia.
Fr Anthony Fallah Borwah was born on 3 October, 1966, in Wodu, Liberia, in the Diocese of Gbarnga. After secondary school, he entered the St Kizito Seminary in Kenema in 1987 for the propaedeutics course and then completed his studies in philosophy first at St Paul's College Seminary in Gbarnga, Liberia, and then in Makeni, Sierra Leone, where he obtained his baccalaureate in 1994. He completed his theological studies at St Peter's Regional Seminary, Cape Coast, Ghana (1995-1996). He was ordained a priest on 15 September, 1996 at the Cathedral of Monrovia, and appointed to the same archdiocese. After his priestly ordination he held the following positions: 1996-1997: assistant parish priest of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Monrovia; 1997-1998: Assistant parish priest of St Peter Claver Parish, Buchanan; 1998-2001: Studies for Licentiate in Social Communications at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce, Rome; 2001-2005 : Parish priest of Christ the King Parish, Monrovia; 2005-2009: Parish priest of St Anthony Parish, Gardnersville, Monrovia; from 2001: Director of the Archdiocesan Catholic Media Center, Monrovia; from 2002 : Speaker for the Episcopal Conference of Liberia (CABICOL); from 2004 : Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liberia; since 2009: Administrator of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Monrovia.
The Diocese of Gbarnga, created in 1986, is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Monrovia. It has an area of 34,000 sq. km and a population of 1,400,000 inhabitants, of whom 18,000 are Catholic. There are 16 parishes, 7 priests (4 diocesan, 3 religious), 7 religious brothers, 16 sisters, 7 seminarians and 41 catechists. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 21/03/2011)