{Bishop Rukamba Philippe of Butare Diocese has been elected to head the Episcopal Conference of Catholic Bishops of Rwanda, replacing bishop Smaragde Mbonyintege who has been leading the Conference for six years.}
Elections of the new leader were held during the 4th Episcopal trimester closing the year, held from Monday to Friday this week.
Thadée Ntihinyurwa, the archbishop of Kigali Diocese has been elected to be the vice chair of the Conference.
Harorimana Vincent, the bishop of Ruhengeri diocese and Antoine Kambanda ,the bishop of Kibungo diocese have been named advisors of the Conference.
On the previous Council, Bishop Thadée Ntihinyurwa was the vice president, while bishops Rukamba Philippe and Harorimana Vincent were advisors.
The conference has approved three-year dedications thus; 2016 will be dedicated to actions of benevolence, 2017 will be marked by celebrating 100 years since the first Rwandan became a priest while 2018 will be dedicated to actions of unity and reconciliation where it will be linked with the commemoration of the 24th Genocide perpetrated against Tutsi in 1994 .This will go hand in hand with the evaluation of the scale of unity and reconciliation among Rwandans.
The conference deliberated on issues related to the management of seminaries in Rwanda where priests acknowledged that the number of people willing to become priests surpass what the available facilities can accommodate.
Family disputes and Catholic Church contribution to the resolution of domestic violence also emerged on the agenda of discussion.
Bishop Philippe Rukamba also assumes duties of Catholic church spokesperson in Rwanda.
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