Control your sex desires, Ntagali cautions parents

Archbishop Stanley Ntagali delivers his Easter message at Namirembe, Kampala, yesterday. PHOTO BY STEPHEN OTAGE

Kampala- Church of Uganda Archbishop Stanley Ntagali has castigated parents for defiling children and fathering others outside marriage.

“Parents, you can control your sexual urges and stop defiling children and stay faithful to your spouse. We all know what it is like to attend the burial of a man in our community and for children from other women to appear at the burial asking for support. Most of the time, his wife and her children never knew about these other women and their children,” Archbishop Ntagali said in his Easter message during a media briefing at the Church of Uganda Provincial Offices in Namirembe, Kampala,on Thursday.

“We can exercise self-control as God designed us to do when he made us in His image. We are not like animals that only follow their instincts and desires,” he added.

Time for children
The head of the Anglican Church in Uganda asked parents to spare time and give their children enough attention to talk with them and understand their challenges.

“Too many parents leave the house before the children are awake and return home after they are asleep. Children are not being raised by their parents but are being raised by house helpers who may not share your values,” he said.

“Children get concerned and think they are the ones who have caused their parents to neglect them. But that is not true. Children have not done anything wrong. It is their parents who have chosen their own selfish interests and neglected their children,” he added.
The archbishop said the Anglican Church in Uganda has declared 2019 the year of children as a move to advocate their rights and welfare.

“Our children desperately need parents who have embraced the death and resurrection of Jesus for themselves. It is the only way to protect our children and ensure they have the best opportunities to grow into the full stature of Christ and to also personally know the freedom that comes from the death and resurrection of Jesus,” he added.

Archbishop Ntagali also asked step-parents to desist from forcing their partners to choose between them and the step-children.
“The child is the one who suffers by being sent away to be cared for by a relative or a stranger who considers the child only as cheap labour to fetch water and firewood. Many of these children end up being trafficked into sex slavery. This is terrible and must stop,” the prelate charged.