Ghanaian bishop elevated to archbishop in newly created Berbérati Ecclesiastical Province

The Holy Father has erected the ecclesiastical province of Berbérati in the Central African Republic, with the suffragan dioceses of Bouar, Mbaïki, and Bossangoa.

At the same time, the Pope has appointed Ghanaian born Bishop Dennis Kofi Agbenyadzi, S.M.A., until now Bishop of Berbérati, as metropolitan archbishop of the newly established province.

Archbishop-elect Agbenyadzi was born on 9 October 1964 in Kadjebi-Akan, in the Diocese of Jasikan in Ghana’s Oti Region. After completing his national civil service, he entered the Society of African Missions. He studied philosophy in the diocesan seminary of Accra, undertook a year of spirituality in Cavali, Benin, and completed his pastoral apprenticeship in Bèlèmboké in the diocese of Berbérati. He later pursued theological studies at the interdiocesan major seminary of Anyama in Côte d’Ivoire and made his perpetual vows on 29 June 1996.

He was ordained a priest on 12 July 1997.

Over the years, he has served as parish vicar in Berbérati (1997–1999), parish priest in Berbérati and director of development projects for the Pygmy people, as well as a member of the Episcopal Council, head of the management of pharmaceutical products, and assistant to the regional superior (1999–2005).

He later became superior of the Formation House in Bangui, member of the diocesan Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants, and regional superior of the Society of African Missions, a role to which he was re-elected in 2010 for a second term (2007–2012). He was appointed bishop of Berbérati on 14 May 2012 and received episcopal consecration on 22 July of the same year.