AFRICA/SIERRA LEONE AND GAMBIA – Appointment of the new National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies

Vatican City – On October 13, 2025, Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization , appointed Father Francis Papa Bangura, of the clergy of the Diocese of Makeni, as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies of Sierra Leone and Gambia, for the five-year term 2025-2030.
The new National Director was born in 1977 in Makeni, Sierra Leone. He studied philosophy and theology at St. Paul’s Major Seminary. He was ordained a priest on January 28, 2005, and incardinated into the Diocese of Makeni. He then earned a Certificate in Pastoral Ministry Course at the Lumko Institute and a Diploma in Education at the University of Makeni . He then earned a Licentiate in Catechesis and Pastoral Care at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome .
He held the following ecclesiastical offices: Secretary to the Bishop ; Parish Priest of Holy Spirit Parish in Makeni ; Parish Priest of Immaculate Conception Parish in Magnuraka . Since 2024, he has served as Secretary General of the Inter-Territorial Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Gambia and Sierra Leone .

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