Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Désiré Lenge Mukwenye as bishop of Kilwa-Kasenga, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Msgr. Désiré Lenge Mukwenye has hitherto served as diocesan administrator of the same ecclesiastical circumscription.
Msgr. Désiré Lenge Mukwenye was born on 2 March 1966 in Lwanza. He studied philosophy and theology at the Saint-Paul Major Seminary in Kambikila, Lubumbashi. After a year at the parish of Saint-André in Kilwa, he was ordained a priest on 31 July 1994.
Following ordination, he first held the roles of parish priest of the Saint Charles Lwanga parish in Lupembe (1994-1998), procurator of the diocese of Lubumbashi (1998-2002), and coadjutor of Santa Maria della Speranza, diocese of Rome (2003-2008). He was awarded a licentiate in biblical theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome (2003-2008). He was a collaborator in the parishes of Immacolata Concezione and Spirito Santo in Torre Annunziata, archdiocese of Naples (2008-2011), and after obtaining a licentiate in biblical spirituality from the Pontifical Gregorian University, he carried out doctoral research in Münster, Germany (2011-2012). He served as a lecturer and spiritual director in the Saint-Paul Seminary of Lubumbashi (2013-2016), and went on to receive a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University (2016). He was provincial secretary for formation and studies (2016-2019) and vicar general of the diocese of Kilwa-Kasenga (2018-2021).
Since 2016 he has been rector of the Université Technologique Katumba Mwanke and professor at the seminary of Lubumbashi, and since 2021, diocesan administrator of Kilwa-Kasenga. (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 17/1/2024)
