The history of the Roman Catholic Church in Lesotho, 1862-1989

Abstract

This dissertation titled The History of the Catholic Church in Lesotho 1862-1989 has three chapters. The first chapter deals with the formation of the seventy-seven missions in Lesotho, and the establishment of the four dioceses of Lesotho the seventy-seven mission had all been formed during the period mentioned in the title, and those formed after appear in the appendix. The second chapter deals with the socio-political involvement of the Catholic Church in Lesotho, this part deals with the authority of the bishop and the Church government and again with the role of the bishop and his relationship to the Oblate authority. In this part four bishops are taken to illustrate this point, and this covers the period from 1930 to 1966. In short this deals with the internal affairs of the Church, and its finances. And we go on to deal with the involvement of the Church in the party politics which led to independence of the country. The last chapter deals with the church under the indigenous clergy, which actually is inculturation its problem and attempted solution.