Catholic Diocese Of Oyo at Jubilee House, P. O. Box 1480, Oyo, Oyo 10002 NG - HISTORY DIOCESE OF OYO

                                    A BRIEF HISTORY OF OYO DIOCESE        

The present day Catholic Diocese of Oyo was carved out from the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos. Before this it meant that priests had to come all the way from Lagos, Ibadan and even Ijebu-Ode to celebrate the Eucharist. At that time, stations like Oyo, Osogbo, Otan, Inisa, Ilesa et.c., were mainly the beneficiaries. Priests were later stationed in these towns. In April 1949, the old Oyo Province - excluding Ibadan - was erected as the Prefecture of Oyo. The White -fathers (the Missionaries of Africa) were invited to take charge. Fr. Owen McCoy - later first Bishop of Oyo, now deceased - led a group of some four White Fathers to start the work of evangelization in the area. On March 1st, 1963, the Prefecture of Oyo was raised to the status of a diocese, with the Prefect Apostolic, Msgr. Owen McCoy, becoming first bishop of Oyo and remaining so until his retirement in 1971. In 1971, Rev. Fr. - later Msgr. - Anthony Olubunmi Okogie of Lagos Archdiocese was ordained auxiliary Bishop of Oyo Diocese, remaining so until the death of Archbishop J.K. Aggey of Lagos Archdiocese, when he was moved to Lagos as Archbishop. The vacancy was thus created in Oyo Diocese which was filled by calling on Rev. Fr. Julius Babatunde Adelakun to take over as Bishop at the age of thirty-nine. He was ordained auxiliary Bishop of Oyo Diocese on February 11th, 1973. On 14th March 1995, the Diocese of Osogbo was carved out of Oyo Diocese with its headquarters at Osogbo. Thus the seat of the Bishop of Oyo was transferred to Oyo town. The liturgical ceremony making the canonical installation of the Bishop of Oyo at his new seat was held on 30th April, 1995 at the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Oyo now raised to the status of a Cathedral.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

The Diocese of Oyo is some 18,000 sq. km. in size, It is situated in the Yoruba West of Nigeria and occupies a large part of Oyo State - Oyo, Ogbomoso and the whole of Oke Ogun. The Diocese is bounded in the North by Ilorin Diocese, in the South by Ibadan Archdiocese, in the East by Osogbo Diocese, in the South West by Lagos Archdiocese and in the North West border area by some of the dioceses of the Republic of Benin. The total population is two and half million people of which about 30,000 are Catholics.