The Most Holy Trinity Parish is based in the west African nation of Benin. Like so many other rural parishes in Africa, it serves several distant villages. Its members must travel great lengths in order to participate in the Mass and receive the Eucharist.
The Diocese of Lisala is one of the oldest and largest Democratic Republic of the Congo, with an area of over 24,000 square miles. Situated in the north of the country, in the Congo basin, it is crisscrossed by the Congo River and its many tributaries.
From 1989 until 2003, Liberia went through one of the bloodiest civil wars on the African continent. To this day, this West African nation has still not fully recovered from it. More than two thirds of the country‘s almost 5 million population still have little faith in a lasting peace.
There are about 4,000 Catholic Christians in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, a country in northwest Africa that is otherwise almost completely Muslim. Serving this congregation in the country’s only diocese are a bishop, priests, and 27 sisters who come from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The Sisters of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus is an African congregation founded in 1929. Today, it has 168 fully professed sisters and ministers in the southern African countries of Malawi and Zambia. Amazingly, the congregation continues to grow, thanks to the interest and faith of young African women.