‘Repent before Pope’s visit’
Pope Francis
What you need to know:
Come clean. The Church has called on people to conduct spiritual renewal according to church teachings.
KAMPALA. The Catholic Church yesterday urged Ugandans to provide for the poor, care for the environment, build families as per Christian teachings and repent their sins as “worthy” preparations to receive Pope Francis.
In the first briefing on the Pontiff’s November 27-29 visit, the Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC) decried the “alarming gap and contradictions between the faith we profess [as Ugandans] and the life we live.”
Ugandans contradict the Bible teachings, Gulu Archbishop and UEC chairman John Baptist Odama said, by practising “polygamy, co-habitation, trial marriage, witchcraft and human sacrifice”.
“The family is also affected by infidelity, denial of mutual love, domestic violence, underage marriage, poor communication among spouses, excessive dowry, child abuse, poverty, alcoholism and diseases, especially HIV/Aids,” the Ugandan Catholic leadership noted.
The Holy Father will next month visit Uganda, Kenya and the Central African Republic on his first Africa tour, and officials said the purpose is “primarily pastoral and spiritual”, fulfilling the mission that Jesus Christ entrusted to Saint Peter.
There are an estimated 15 million Catholics in Uganda, the church’s leadership said, calling for, among the faithful, spiritual renewal and emulation of the selflessness of Uganda Martyrs.
Fr Philip Odii, UEC’s executive secretary, sent out yesterday’s message on behalf of Archbishop Odama, currently for a synod at the Vatican, and in it underlined the role of stable families in advancing the church’s pastoral and social work.
Seizing on the teachings of Saint Peter, the first pope, the apex assembly of the Catholic Church here, challenged Ugandans to love and treat one another with kindness and live holy lives.
“It is life which, in no way, is compatible with corruption, immorality, impurity, sorcery and witchcraft, idolatry, hatred, jealous(ness), adultery, fornication, injustice, violence, abuse of human rights, fury and selfishness,” Archbishop Odama noted, “yet these vices are rampant in our country today.”
The theme of the Pope’s Uganda visit, which is primarily to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the canonisation of the Uganda martyrs, is “…You will be my witness”, picked from the biblical book of the Acts of Apostles 1:8.
Healing wounds
Invoking Uganda’s turbulent political history, current deep divisions and lack of national consensus, Archbishop Odama said the “pope comes as a bridge builder”.
