Our History
The Chinhoyi Mission was entrusted to the Germany Jesuits in 1958 and remained part of the Archdiocese of Harare until the erection of a Prefecture. In 1974, Msgr Helmut Reckter was appointed as Prefect Apostolic of Chinhoyi. On the 5th of January 1986, it was raised to the status of a Diocese with Msgr Helmut Reckter SJ as its first Bishop. In March 2007 Bishop Dieter Scholz was appointed his successor, and in 2018 Bishop Raymond T Mupandasekwa CSsR who is the current Bishop became his successor.
The Diocese of Chinhoyi is situated at the border with Mozambique and Zambia. The area best known as the Zambezi escapement covers the great part of the diocese. The Diocese of Chinhoyi geographically covers Mashonaland West and parts of Mashonaland Central. It is basically a rural diocese; 72% in Mashonaland West is rural, while 92% of Mashonaland Central is also rural, the Diocese comprises of the civil districts of Makonde, Zvimba, Hurungwe, Kariba, Guruve, Mbire, Centenary, Mount Darwin and Rushinga, with a population of about 92 000 Catholics.
Social economic activities of the diocese are made up of peasant farming and isolated commercial farm production. There are 21 parishes in the Diocese, each parish is divided into centres which are further divided into Small Christian Communities.