Episcopal Conference of the Indian Ocean Port-Louis 2002-2006: Gilbert Guillaume Jean-Marie Aubry, Bishop of Saint-Denis-de-La Réunion 2006-...: Denis Wiehe, Bishop of Port Victoria Episcopal Conference of the Indian Ocean The Episcopal Conference of the Indian Ocean (French: Conférence Épiscopale de l'Océan Indien, CEDOI) is an agency of the Catholic Church which includes following Indian Ocean archipelagoes: Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Mayotte and Seychelles. Since 1974, the bishops of the Indian Ocean islands would gather each year in an informal meeting. In 1976 the Holy See recognized this assembly with the name of Pastoral Zone of the South West Indian Ocean islands. In 1985 the assembly obtained from
Indian Ocean Polynesians reached most of the far flung islands and atolls and populated them, almost all the islands, archipelagos and atolls of the Indian Ocean were uninhabited until colonial times. Although there were numerous ancient civilizations in the coastal states of Asia and parts of Africa, the Maldives were the only island group in the Central Indian Ocean region where an ancient civilization flourished. Maldivian ships used the Indian Monsoon Current to travel to the nearby coasts. From 1405 to 1433 admiral Zheng He said to have led large fleets of the Ming Dynasty on several treasure voyages through the Indian