Please support St. Leopold Parish in Shangombo, WP, Zambia.

The Shangombo Oblate Mission is located right at the boarder between Zambia and Angola. The mission began with a group of refugees who fled war from Angola around the year 1975.

The church was initially under St. Anthony of Padua parish. Priests from St. Anthony of Padua parish would travel roughly two hundred kilometres (five hours due to lack of proper road) at least twice a year to come and celebrate sacraments with the Catholic faithful here.

The church remained without a resident priest until 1996 when it was declared a parish. Fr. Boris Dabo, a Fedei Donum priest from Croatia became the first parish priest. Since then, faith among the local people has been flourishing as the population keeps increasing.

Fr. Boris worked here until the year 2000. After his departure, the mission was left under the management of the Capuchin Franciscan friars but due to personnel, and the difficult nature of the mission, the Franciscans left the place in 2004.

From 2004 until 2009, there was no priest in the mission.

At the prompting of the Spirit and at  the invitation of the Local ordinary, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate took charge of the mission until today.

Shangombo Oblate Mission is one of the most rural in the Catholic Diocese of Livingstone. The Mission covers 2998 square miles with thirty five outstations (small churches).

The entire district has no proper road network which makes it even more difficult to visit other outstations.

The major languages spoken in the parish are English, Kwamashi, and Silozi. There is a growing number of civil servants and immigrants who bring a rich diversity to our parish. With the we have Mbunda, Bemba, Nyanja and many more others.

The main structures of the parish include the priest’s house, the main church, and the church hall. In the past, there also used to be guest house which helped in the management of parish pastoral activities especially in sponsoring young ones for further studies.

Through your prayers and generosity, we continue this sacred mission, offering support to communities who face poverty, war, natural disasters, and despair.