The Catholic Diocese of Yendi was curved out of the Archdiocese of Tamale and erected on March 16th, 1999 with our Lady of Lourdes as the Patron Saint and Most Rev. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, SVD, as the first Bishop. Our historical records reveal that the work of evangelization in the now Yendi Diocese goes back as far as 1910 when Fr. Shoening, a German SVD priest, working in the now Republic of Togo visited the Yendi area. Later on in 1925, Bishop Herman, SMA, made a sixteen days trip on bicycle from Kpando to Yendi.
During the years 1928 – 1929 the District Commissioner of Yendi, the Regional Commissioner of Tamale and the Director of Education in Accra made it known that they did not approve of Christianity’s presence and activity in Yendi. Yendi was reserved for Islam. In 1930 however, there was a change in government policy and the Assemblies of God missionaries were given the sole right to work in the then Yendi District. Catholic missionaries continued to be excluded until 1932 when they were allowed. With that decision, the SMA mission entered Bimbilla. Fr. Anthony Smester, SMA was appointed Parish Priest but died of fever in less than a year. Fr. John Doeswijk began visiting Bimbilla regularly and Yendi occasionally until 1947. A teacher catechist was stationed in Bimbilla. From 1948 onwards the white fathers began visiting Yendi. The priests who did it regularly were Frs. Remigius McCoy and Stanislaus Le-Blanc came to Yendi on motorbikes every month and took care of the community until 1950. Until 1958 many White Fathers worked in Yendi. The first Parish Priest was Fr. John McNulty and he became the first resident priest of Yendi in 1958. Yendi Parish was officially established in 1958 on the centenary celebration of the Immaculate Conception.
From 1960 onwards the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) took over Yendi mission with the presence of Fr. Charles Erb, SVD and Fr. Henk Janssen, SVD. They started to minister to the people in the area. The work of evangelization progressed steadily in the then Yendi SVD mission and by 1994 there were parishes in the following towns: Yendi, Chereponi, Saboba, Tatale, Bimbilla, Chamba and Kpandai (now part of Tamale Archdiocese) and a resident mission at Gushegu.
Following the unfortunate incident of the inter-ethnic conflict, the SVD at a meeting in Kpandai seriously considered keeping it as an outstation for a while. The leadership of the then SVD Yendi District threw the ball back to the then Fr. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, SVD, the task of visiting Yendi Parish and its environs in view of eventually restoring the Yendi Parish to normalcy. Upon his return to his post in the SVD Formation House in Tamale, then Fr. Boi-Nai managed to convince the other Formation Staff to buy into the idea of animating the pastoral life of Yendi Parish and its outstations and got them to assist in this regard. Mr. Thomas Zakaria, then Catechist of Yendi, confirmed the conviction of then Fr. Boi-Nai when the Catechist paid then Fr. Boi-Nai a personal visit in Tamale with the request for the need of priestly pastoral care for Yendi on Sundays because of the many communicants that came for prayer service every Sunday.
In 1996 the repair works on the Our Lady of Lourdes Church and the Priests’ Rectory were completed and two SVD priests took up residence. By this time the conflict was over as the warring factions had peacefully settled their differences. As a demonstration of this peace, the factions performed the local ritual of “burying the war” (reconciliation). Great news of joy came when on the 16th of March, 1999 Pope John Paul II created Yendi Diocese out of the Archdiocese of Tamale and nominated Fr. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, SVD, as Bishop of the newly created Diocese. On the 10th of July, 1999, he was ordained and installed as the first Bishop of Yendi. The Diocese of Yendi then had seven parishes, twelve SVD confreres and two Diocesan Priests. From two Diocesan Priests, the Diocese now has thirty Diocesan Priests (30) and twelve Diocesan Seminarians (12) at various levels of formation.
Most Rev. Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, SVD, governed the Diocese of Yendi for twenty-three (23) years and having attained the age of retirement tendered in his letter that was accepted by Pope Francis, who appointed me as the second Bishop of Yendi on June 3, 2022, and I was subsequently consecrated and installed on 20th August 2022. Learn More