Faithful pay respect as Pope Francis lies in state in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, April 24, 2025. PHOTO/REUTERS
The year 2015 remains memorable in the lives of the Kasana Luweero District parishioners following the late Pope Francis’s Encyclical letter published in 2015, which highlighted the need to replenish the planet earth and protect the degraded environment.
In Pope Francis’s visionary second encyclical letter titled: ‘Laudato ‘Si’, the pope sent out a powerful message, warning about environmental degradation and global warming, while rallying the masses to take immediate action.
It is this message that awakened Luweero District practitioners and priests’ avidity to restore the then depleted Nandere Hill forest through the replanting of natural trees on the 250 acres of land in what they later named ‘Lazarus’ forest.
“We see increasing sensitivity to the environment and the need to protect nature, along with a growing concern, both genuine and distressing, for what is happening to our planet. Let us review, however cursorily, those questions which are troubling us today and which we can no longer sweep under the carpet,” Pope Francis wrote in his letter.
“Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it,” the pope’s letter further reads, before he outlined some of the threats to the environment as he appealed for solutions.
The late pope named pollution and climate change, loss of biodiversity, decline in the quality of human life and the breakdown of society and global inequality, among other factors impacting the environment.
The Reverend Fathers under Kasana-Luweero Diocese then nursed a dream to put into practice the Papal Encyclical letter. Their determination caught the eyes of then Bishop of Kasana Luweero Diocese, Paul Ssemogerere, now Archbishop of Kampala Diocese, who granted the authority for them to go ahead and utilise the Church land at Nandere Hill to rejuvenate the depleted natural forest.
Lazarus Forest
Located at 15kms kilometres off the Kampala-Gulu highway, Nyimbwa Sub-county in Luweero District, the forest christened Lazarus Forest at its dedication for replanting in 2019 is now a thick natural tree forest and home to more than 160 migrant birds and about 17 wild animal species that recently found a habitable home.
According to Rev Fr Emmanuel Katongole, one of the vision bearers who, together with Dr Cornelius Ssempala and the Late Rev Fr Dr Zachary Rweza bore the dream while celebrating 25 years in priesthood, Lazarus Forest is a true vision of Pope Francis’ encyclical letter that inspired the regeneration of the ‘dead’ forest.
Under the stewardship of Bethany Land Institute, Nandere Parish under Kasana-Luweero Diocese, the Lazarus forest is a true memorial tree cover of Pope Francis’s visionary second encyclical letter Laudato ‘Si’.
“We are indeed blessed to be witnessing the Lazarus Forest turn into a natural habitat for hundreds of species of birds and wild animals after a dedicated rejuvenation plan born out of Pope Francis’s second encyclical letter urging mankind to care for the environment.
This was our prayer that we put up something out of the Pope’s inspirational prayer for environmental rejuvenation,” he said briefly.
Rev Fr Mathias Jooga, the parish priest at Nandere Hill, Kasana Luweero Diocese, under whose custodianship the forest falls, said the natural ambience that welcomes visitors coming to visit Nandere parish for the first time is a reflection of the dedicated stewardship vested in the people who bore the idea.
“The Reverend Fathers gave us a good foundation, for which the entire Nandere Hill is now a conservation area. The regenerative farming practices advanced by Bethany Land Institute and care for the natural environment rekindle the great love and care by Pope Francis,” he said.
Mr Peter Ssembogo, the LC1 Chairperson for Luyobyo village that borders the Lazarus forest, is quick to say that the forest only came back to life in 2022 when some of the replanted trees started maturing.
By the year 2005, the former natural forest was almost a farming land after the destruction and encroachment on the natural trees for timber and charcoal.
“The encroachers targeted the tall natural trees that had grown and matured over the years. At this time, the Church was not in control of this particular forest while Luweero District Local Government was not powerful enough to check on the encroachers.
This forest serves as a good memorial for our fallen Pope Francis since the idea of rejuvenating the forest was partly from his letter on the degraded environment,” he told the Monitor on April 22, 2025.
Mr Chris Mukwaya, the forest officer who has overseen the replanting exercise for more than six years at Bethany Land Institute, said that while the immediate community looked the other way and possibly did not want the forest to be rejuvenated, many are now happy because of the many gains.
“We began by planting indigenous tree species, many of which were bought from trusted tree nursery beds. These trees included the Mahogany, Musizi, and Mivule, among other species.
We also planted fruit-bearing trees to attract the birds and wild animals.
The forest has hundreds of medicinal tree species where the residents are often allowed to enter the forest to get some of the depleted types of medicinal tree leaves,” he said.
Migratory birds
At the Lazarus Forest, the nature lovers who including both home and foreign tourists, are now regular visitors for bird watching.
Ms Maria Ssendagire, a resident of Nandere Village, said the nice evening and early morning melodies from the different bird species make Nandere a nice place to stay.
“I like making calls with the birds’ melodies in the background. I always tell my people that I live near a beautiful natural forest.
We bless our priests who heard the voice of Pope Francis rallying people to take care of the environment,’’ he said.
Mr Sylvester Kule, the programmes coordinator at Bethany Land Institute (BLI) and a lead conservationist, observed that the world would now be a changed place if all people heeded Pope Francis' second encyclical letter to replenish the degraded environment.
In 2024, the streams of water that had dried out in 2014 started flowing again. The residents woke up to the realisation that the dry gullies were now flowing with water.
Conservationists say that the re-wakened streams are signs of environmental regeneration over time.
Kampala Archbishop Paul Ssemogere, a pioneer graduate at Bethany Land Institute in Luweero District, said the Lazarus Forest was an example of how man can actively contribute to the well-being of his environment.
