Joseph B. Willigers
Joseph Bernard Louis Willigers MHM was a Dutch Roman Catholic bishop in Uganda. He was the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jinja. He was a member of the Mill Hill Missionaries religious order.
Early life and education
Willigers was born in the Netherlands on 26 October 1930. He studied philosophy and theology at St Joseph's College in Mill Hill, London, before his ordination in 1955. He also studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome after his ordination and completed these studies by 1958.On 10 May 1959, he came to Uganda for missionary work and was assigned as a professor at Ggaba Seminary, Kampala.
Career
Willigers worked in education and basic pastoral care in Uganda and Kenya. In 1960, he was transferred from Ggaba to Nagalama. In April 1960, he was transferred to Kenya where he was a curate at the Shikoti parish and in 1965 he became the vicar general of the Diocese of Kisumu under the Dutch bishop Jan de Reeper.In 1967, Willigers was named bishop and became the first bishop of the Diocese of Jinja east of the Ugandan capital of Kampala. In 1962, he was appointed as the parish priest of Kaiboi in Kenya.
On 3 December 1967, he was ordained to the episcopate by Archbishop Emmanuel Nsubuga, later Uganda's first cardinal. Willigers led the faithful of his diocese until he retired in March 2010.
In 2009, he participated in the synod of bishops' Assembly of Africa. His contacts with his native diocese of Roermond continued through the years, as Roermond financially supported projects in Jinja.