Pope Leo XIV has appointed Rev Fr Bonaventure Bosco Gubazire as the new Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kabale in south-western Uganda, ending 23 years of leadership under Bishop Callistus Rubaramira.
The appointment was announced on Wednesday by the Apostolic Nunciature in Kampala, on the Feast of St Bonaventure — the bishop-elect’s own patron saint.
Fr Gubazire, 52, a member of the Society of Missionaries of Africa, popularly known as the White Fathers, has until now served as Rector of St Martin of Tours Formation House in Ejisu, Ghana.
The Holy Father also accepted the resignation of Bishop Rubaramira, 75, who reached the retirement age set out in Canon 401 of the Code of Canon Law, which requires bishops to offer their resignation to the Pope at 75.
In a communiqué signed by Rev Fr Georges Kwami Kouwonou, Chargé d’Affaires at the Nunciature, the Holy See said it had “the joy to announce” the appointment and thanked Bishop Rubaramira for what it described as generous and dedicated service to the diocese since 2003.
Bishop Rubaramira will remain in charge of the diocese as Apostolic Administrator until the new bishop formally takes canonical possession of the See. The date of the episcopal ordination and installation is expected to be announced by the diocese in due course.
For the faithful of Kigezi, the appointment is a homecoming. The bishop-elect was born on 3 March 1974 in Kitumba, within the Diocese of Kabale, and attended St Paul’s Minor Seminary in Rushoroza before joining the Missionaries of Africa.
He studied philosophy and religious studies in Jinja, theology at the Institut Catholique in Toulouse, France, and was ordained a priest on 10 August 2003 — just two months after Bishop Rubaramira’s own episcopal ordination.
His missionary career has taken him across four continents. He served as a parish vicar and adult formation director in Mozambique from 2003 to 2007, before further studies in Lyon, France, and a licentiate in philosophy at the Milltown Institute in Dublin, Ireland.
He went on to teach at the Lechaptois Formation House in Balaka, Malawi, where he was Dean of Studies and later interim rector, and also served as the Malawi section’s Delegate for the Protection of Minors from 2011 to 2016.
The bishop-elect earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of San Carlos in Cebu, the Philippines, where he also served as rector of the Our Lady of Africa Formation House Seminary.
Since 2021 he has been Dean of Studies at Spiritan University College in Ejisu, Ghana, lecturing in philosophy and the social sciences while mentoring seminarians, and in 2023 he was appointed rector of the philosophy formation house there. He has sat on the Provincial Council of the Ghana-Nigeria Province of the Missionaries of Africa since 2025.
His academic work focuses on communitarian cultures, ethics, classical theism and environmental stewardship — themes that echo the Church’s growing emphasis on the care of creation.
The appointment carries historical resonance. The White Fathers pioneered the Catholic faith in the Kigezi region, opening the Rushoroza mission in Kabale in 1909, and Fr Gubazire becomes the second member of the Society to lead the diocese, after Bishop Robert-Marie Gay, who served from 1994 to 2003.
The Society was among the first to celebrate the news. In a statement, its Superior General and General Council congratulated their confrere and entrusted his new mission to “the intercession of Our Lady of Africa, of the Holy Martyrs of Uganda, and of Saint Bonaventure”.
The Diocese of Kabale, erected in 1966 from the then Diocese of Mbarara, covers some 5,330 sq km of the Kigezi highlands and is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Mbarara. Fr Gubazire will be its fourth bishop.
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