Celebrating All Saints Day in Uganda

Religious leaders posing for a group photo recently.

What you need to know:

  • The Uganda Martyrs learned one important lesson from their leader St Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, and later St Charles Lwanga that God is not only creator, but God is love above all.

In the Christianity realm, November 1, is considered the solemnity of All Saints. On this day, we rejoice in the holy men and women, young, old, white and black of every time and place, known and unknown, canonised or not, who are in heaven. They may be our very own friends and relatives. And the question that easily pops into mind is: Is Uganda today moving from folly to glory or is it the vice-versa? For if we are not busy growing, then we are busy dying. Before resigning from presidency, former South Africa president Jacob Zuuma organised a formal meeting with the clergy in the nation and this was part of his address to them.

“…..Dear bishops, reverends, priests, pastors and sheikhs, let’s us consider this together, in the past, we had fewer bishops, reverends, priests and sheikhs; fewer mosques and churches, fewer Christians and Muslims and things were moving smoothly. But today, we are having many religious leaders, churches and mosques in every conner of the country, but what impact are we making with these many more numbers in our society?”

To make Mr Zuma’s challenge our own, as we celebrate the solemnity of the Saints in Uganda, the land of martyrs, with many more bishops, reverends, priests, sheiks, mosques and churches, can we simply say we are currently producing more saints than in the past?
What is universally clear in Uganda today is that the main focus in religion, politics and social life is on two main issues - how hefty is one’s bank account; and what status or title do I have?
Everyone wants to become a bishop, president, MP or at least have some tittle. Being holy or perfect is being relegated to the dust bin of the private individual and not a serious concern even in our religious circles.

In this, “sin” is no longer the main thing, but “problem” is. We are more concerned about crime, and not sin, with torturers, not sinners, with domestic violence, not marital/parental sinfulness! In prayer, we are about to change the expression “this is the lamb of God, who takes away the “sins” of the world, replacing it with who takes away the “problems” of the world. The venerable Archbishop Futton J. Sheen of the US on visiting prisoners, he used to say, “The only difference between me and you is that you were caught and I am still at large, I am not yet caught,” meaning that we are all sinners. The question is, does God/Allah want his followers rich and prosperous with status and big titles on Earth or He wants them perfect and holy?

Today’s gospel in the Catholic Church partially reads, “Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward will be great in Heaven.” The Uganda Martyrs learned one important lesson from their leader St Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, and later St Charles Lwanga that God is not only creator, but God is love above all.
As Ugandans and our leaders, where do we stand on this account? As we celebrate all Saints Day, do we fully live in harmony with our national motto “For God and my Country?”
Robert N. Kayongo,
Kampala