- History of the Diocese
Tamale was erected as a diocese in 18 May, 1950 and as a Metropolitan See with a resident archbishop on May 30, 1977.
The patron is: The Immaculate Heart of Mary
The titular patron: Our lady of the annunciation
Although Tamale has been the headquarters of the Catholic Church in Northern Ghana since 1950, it is the least developed in terms of Christian growth. Why is it so? There are several factors to explain this;
First, the resistant attitude of the colonial powers to all Christian missionary activities in the north. They believed that the missionary enterprise was destructive of African traditional institutions, especially chieftaincy, which they sought to preserve. They supported Islam, which worked hand in hand with Catholic Missionaries.
Because of this anti-Christian evangelism attitude of the colonial powers the area covered now by the Archdiocese of Tamale remained untouched by Christian missionaries until as late as the 1940s when the first contacts were made with catholic missionaries.
During the period similar attempts were also made by protestant missionaries to evangelize the North but they met the same frustration by the colonial powers. This is what Fr. Remigius McCoy, (M. Afr.), the first catholic missionary who settled in Tamale, wrote;
“In 1946 Bishop Morin decided he could no longer delay in establishing a Christian presence in the fast growing capital of Northern Gold Coast. I was sent, with his blessing, to Tamale on 13 September to open the first mission among the predominantly Muslim population. My arrival there was far different from that in Jirapa 17 years earlier. No welcoming community awaited me nor was the government representative there to lend support. As far as the British colonial government was concerned, Tamale was strictly a Muslim preserve” (Great Things Happen, Pg. 206). |
