Church comes under fire for  its silence as Easter dawns 

Religious leaders have been placed in the uncomfortable position of having to deflect accusations they have abandoned the flock even as Uganda joins the rest of the Christian world in mourning on Good Friday, a day on which our Lord Jesus Christ died for the sins of mankind. 

Mr Joshua Kitakule, secretary general of the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, an umbrella body under which the various faith leaders congregate, denied they have been pocketed by government.

“The clerics are not being compromised in any way,” Mr Kitakule said, promising they will address issues facing the country over Easter.

READ: Corrupt officials need divine deliverance – Kaziimba

The normally calm official, who maintained religious leaders will always speak out against social injustices, also took a dim view of the suspicion they have been bought using earthly gifts like fuel-guzzling SUVs and brown envelopes filled with cash.
“But everyone gets donations, including the Opposition and even you journalists… Has that stopped you stopped you from doing your work?” he said.

These seemingly irreverent accusations spring from the uncharacteristic silence from the pulpit at a time Uganda faces grave challenges. Institutionalised corruption, unrelenting human rights abuse, poor social services, persecution of political opponents and unequal access to economic opportunity, among others, are troubling the land. 
And so, today’s silence, critics say, is in sharp contrast to what Ugandans had become accustomed to in the fiery sermons and unforgiving homilies delivered by a more fearless and public-spirited crop of faith leaders of years gone by.

With Easter days away, the expectation was that Palm Sunday last week would have been a platform upon which the men of the cloth would renew the faith of the faithful through sermons filled with righteous indignation at the injustices bedevilling the land.
The late Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala was a renowned critic of government and often spoke in defence of the people, especially the meek, feeble and helpless in the face evil.

Lwanga
Before he died in 2021, Archbishop Lwanga frequently spoke about the death threats he faced, words which led many to believe that his death was not a natural one. Anglican Archbishop Janani Luwum is a national martyr, murdered in February 1977 by the brutal dictator Idi Amin for speaking against horrific State-inspired human rights abuses
Most clergymen have gone deathly quiet today, seemingly unmoved as momentous political developments take place; watching on as seismic shifts in power relations which could affect the country’s future occur. 
As Parliament reels from the #UgandaParliamentExhibition revelations about suspected flagrant corruption involving the gross abuse of billions of shillings of public funds, the Church has largely sidestepped the issue – much to the chagrin of the flock that continues to struggle to make ends meet in these very harsh economic times.
Yet last year, top clerics used Palm Sunday to slam top politicians who were implicated in the Karamoja iron sheets theft saga, in some cases calling for their resignation and prosecution.

A sense of what the people think was captured by a university student studying divinity, Mr Peter Musinguzi who was ruthless in his criticism; noting the Church is in bed with dirty politicians.
“They are eating from the same plate and religious leaders are quiet; hardly saying anything about the ongoing evils in society,” Mr Musinguzi said.
Ms Agather Atuhaire, one of the social activists behind the #UgandaParliamentExhibition, shared a similar concern.

“The Church became just about money: from the handouts, envelopes, and Landcruisers, accepting all these gifts puts them in such a position that they cannot bite the hand that feeds them,” she said
Critics say receiving these goodies entrenches a conflict of interest and culture of permissiveness even when religious leaders claim to occupy the moral high ground.

With the signs of the times being what they are, the words of former Archbishop of York in the UK, John Sentamu way back in 2015, were prescient. Commenting the question of government gifts to church leaders, the Ugandan-born cleric said there was nothing wrong with receiving gifts from government officials -- as along as the clergy remembered to do their work.