New Bishop Ordained for the Diocese of Makeni in Sierra Leone

The Episcopal Ordination of the Most Reverend Natale Paganelli was celebrated on Saturday morning (October 31st) in Makeni city, in northern Sierra Leone. The ceremony was presided over by Archbishop Miroslaw Adamczyk, Apostolic Nuncio in Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia, assisted by the President of the Bishops’ conference of Sierra Leone and Gambia, Most Rev. Patrick Koroma of Kenema Diocese and Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Makeni, Most Rev. George Biguzzi.

On July 18th this year, Pope Francis elevated the former Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Makeni to the rank of a Bishop and assigned him the titular see of  Gadiaufala. Bishop Natale or Natalio Paganelli as he is known in the diocese, is a member of the Xaverian Missionaries. He was born in Grignano di Brembate, in the Diocese of Bergamo, Italy on December 24, 1956. He was ordained a priest on December 25, 1980 in Parma. After his ordination he spent some twenty years in mission in Mexico before going to Sierra Leone in 2005.