Mutare Diocese's History of Evangelization

Abstract

The nineteenth century and twentieth centuries have witnessed a tremendous exodus of Christian missionaries from the western world into Zimbabwe. Christianity particularly the Catholic Church has been presented to the African in foreign garbs such that Africans have perceived their own culture as archaic or primitive. However, many and varied religious missionary groups came to Zimbabwe to “indigenize the Church hence there has been an ongoing ecclesial development in spheres of self-sustaining, self-ministering and self-propagating among the Manyika Catholic Church”.1 This essay seeks to give a brief history of the evangelization of the now known suffrigan of Mutare under the reign of his Lordship Rt. Rev Bishop Paul Horan O.Carm. The scope of this history of evangelization commence from the first German Marianhill missionaries who worked from 1908-1930 and established the first mission in Mutare at Triashill mission. Mutare was then erected as a Prefecture Apostolic and confided to the Irish Carmelites on the 2nd of February 1953. Donald Lamont was appointed as Vicariate Prefecture on 6 February 1953 and later became a bishop of the Diocese in 1957. In 1957, the known Prefecture Apostolic of Mutare became a diocese. Bishop Lamont worked in Mutare since it was a
prefecture and resigned in 1981. He was succeeded by Alexio Muchabaiwa from 5 November 1981 who reigned until the resignation of 28 May 2016. It is worth noting that it is with the same effect that Bishop Paul Horan resumed office and was appointed the successor as the Bishop of Mutare.