Inauguration of the Basilica of the Parish of Our Lady of Hope in Mbuji-Mayi

Bishop Emmanuel Bernard Kasanda of the Mbuji-Mayi diocese presided over a solemn mass on August 30, 2026, for the inauguration of the Basilica of the Parish of Our Lady of Hope. This basilica, the first in the Kasaï-Oriental province, can accommodate nearly 1,300 worshippers and marks the end of a nearly forty-year wait for the Catholic community in Mbuji-Mayi. Construction work, which began in 2016, has resulted in a fully modernized parish complex, consecrated by the bishop in the presence of the presidential couple.