In a letter dated December 6, 2023 from the Apostolic Nuncio, the Holy Father informs the diocese that he has appointed Father Michel Moura as the new Vicar Apostolic of Rodrigues. The announcement of this appointment was made simultaneously in Rome, Rodrigues and Mauritius on Wednesday December 20, 2023.
This appointment is a great joy for the Diocese of Port-Louis and for the Apostolic Vicariate of Rodrigues. The people of Rodrigues have been waiting for the coming of the Lord during the Advent season. A son of the soil is the new Vicar Apostolic of Rodrigues. As a reminder: from 2002 to 2020, Mgr Harel was Vicar Apostolic of Rodrigues.
Mgr Jean Michaël Durhône declares that he and Father Michel spent 3 years in the seminary together (2002-2005). According to him, Michel likes to get involved in projects, he’s curious. He’s close to the people of God, to whom he wants to make Jesus Christ known. He loves the Church.
Mgr Jean Michaël Durhône also gave thanks to the sons of the soil who have accepted the successive calls they have received from the Church to be at the service of men and women, of the people of God, in the islands of the Indian Ocean or in our Mauritian society. “I am thinking here of Mgr Denis Wiehé, bishop in the Seychelles for 20 years, Mgr Harel in Rodrigues and then in the Seychelles, Cardinal Margéot and Cardial Piat, who served the diocese of Port-Louis,” he declared.
The Bishop of Port-Louis reminds us that through these various appointments, we are given a new dynamic and a new breath to lead the Church in the Indian Ocean, while recognizing the heritage received from our brother bishops, Mgr Aubry, Mgr Harel, Mgr Wiehé, Cardinal Piat and the late Cardinal Margéot.
The church of Rodrigues is detached from the diocese of Port-Louis and elevated to an apostolic vicariate
Following a formal request from the Episcopal Conference of the Indian Ocean (CEDOI) to the Holy See, the Church of Rodrigues is detached from the diocese of Port-Louis and elevated to an apostolic vicariate. The official and simultaneous announcement of this change of status and the appointment of Mgr Alain Harel as the first Bishop of Rodrigues was made in Saint-Gabriel on October 31, 2002 by Mgr Maurice Piat.
The Vicariate Apostolic is a specific portion of the People of God which, due to particular circumstances, has not yet been constituted as a diocese, and whose pastoral care is entrusted to a Vicar Apostolic who governs it in the name of the Pope.
