The Cathedral of San José de Jinja, next to the fountains of the Nile
Jinja, the Ugandan city where the Nile was born from Lake Victoria, is the seat of a Catholic diocese erected on August 5, 1966, torn from the ancient diocese of Kampala. Its cathedral is dedicated to St. Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary, and is the heart of the Church in the region of Busoga.
🌹 Wonders and anecdotes
- The Catholic faith came to this region with the Missionaries of Mill Hill, to whom the Holy See entrusted the Vicariate of the High Nile, erected on July 13, 1894: the first evangelizers went up the great river that was born precisely in Jinja.
- The diocese of Jinja was established on August 5, 1966 as a suffranea of the Archdiocese of Tororo, and today it has 45 parishes that serve the people of Busoga through evangelization, education, health and charity.
- The cathedral honors St. Joseph, the guardian of the Virgin and of Jesus: under his patronage, the diocese holds dozens of schools and a dozen health centres, prolonging in works the silent care of the holy patriarch.
- In 2025, following the death of Bishop Charles Martin Wamika, who pastored the diocese since 2010, Pope Leo XIV appointed Archbishop Emmanuel Obbo as apostolic administrator, a sign of the universal Church's request for this young community.
San José (Jinja Cathedral)
Next to the place where the Nile begins its long way north, the Cathedral of San José de Jinja brings together the Catholics of Busoga: a young Church, born of the missionaries of Mill Hill, who entrusts the Virgin and her husband San José to the fruit of her evangelization.
"St. Joseph, the guardian of the Virgin Mary, keeps the Church who pilgrims along with the sources of the Nile.
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