Kokstad

DIOCESE OF KOKSTAD

(Province of Durban)
PATRON: St Patrick

 
Kokstad
 
Bishop Zolile Mpambani SCJ

Address: “Holycross House”
107 Hope Street
PO Box 65,
Kokstad
4700

Tel: (039) 727 2239
Fax (039) 727 1151
Website: www.catholicdiocesekokstad.org.za

 

PREDECESSORS

– Rt rev Bishop Sigebald Kurz, OFM was consecrated 29 December 1939 as Titular Bishop of Terenati and First Vicar Apostolic of Kokstad. He retired in 1946 and died in Germany in December 1973.
– Rt Rev John Evangelist McBride, OFM was appointed Bishop of Kokstad 2 April 1949.
Titular Bishop of Ezani. He was consecrated in Dublin, Ireland, 25 July 1949; enthroned 29 September 1949 and retired June 1978. He died in Dublin, Ireland on 12 February 1991.
– Rt Rev Wilfrid Fox Napier, OFM, Appointed Apostolic Administrator 15 May 1978 and canonically installed 26 June 1989, he was appointed Bishop 15 December 1980. He was ordained 28 February 1981. Transferred, and installed as Archbishop of Durban on 04 October 1992.

– Rt Rev William Slattery OFM was appointed  Bishop of Kokstad on 7 December 1993 and was ordained on 19 February 1994 in Kokstad.

 

HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE

By Papal Decree of 8 April 1935, the Kokstad Dstrict of the Marianhill Vicariate was constituted the Prefecture of Apostolic of Mount Currie. The PrefectureApostolic of Mount Currie became the Vicariate Apostolic of Kokstad on 11 July 1939, and was entrusted to Franciscan Fathers (Order of Friars Minor, OMI). Rt Rev Sigebald Kurz, OFM became the first Bishop. He resigned in 1949 and Rt Rev Lucas Puerstinger, OFM was Apostolic Administrator until 1949 when Rt Rev John Evangelist Mcbride, OFM was appointed Bishop and remained in office until his resignation in 1978, when Rt Rev. Wilfrid F Napier, OFM was appointed Apostolic Administrator and later Bishop. With the establishment of the hierarchy in 1951, the diocese of Kokstad came into existence and comprises the magisterial districts of Bizana, Flagstaff’ Lusikisiki, Port St John on the left bank of the Umzimvubu River, Mount Ayliff, Mount Frere, Tabankulu, Mount Currie and Matatiele south of the Kenegha River.

Area: 17 635 sq.km.         Total Pop: 1 434 000         Cath. Pop: 74 000

ADMINISTRATION

Vicar General
Fr Mariano PEREZ GONZALEZ, MCCJ
P.O. Box 1437, KOKSTAD 4700
Tel: 039 255 0149; Cell: 082 7139 392
E-mail: mariano@goggaconnect.co.za

Diocesan Chancellor
Fr Joseph Methanath
PO Box 1873, Kokstad 4700
Tel: (039) 727 2239

For further information please go to the Diocese of Kokstad