Forever grateful for the life of Archbishop Kizito Lwanga

Angella Nampewo

What you need to know:

  • Ideally, one could have no greater wish than that. Perhaps I was not yet ready to sing along. While I pray that God grants the soul of the late Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga smooth passage into His eternal kingdom, as his body was being lowered into the grave, my weak mortal self was loath to let go.

This week, I will start at the end. On Thursday, at about 3pm, as the organist in Rubaga Cathedral began to play a familiar hymn, my almost week-long composure started to crack. The lyrics of his intended Luganda hymn suggest total surrender of one’s life, soul and legacy into God’s hands.

Ideally, one could have no greater wish than that. Perhaps I was not yet ready to sing along. While I pray that God grants the soul of the late Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga smooth passage into His eternal kingdom, as his body was being lowered into the grave, my weak mortal self was loath to let go.

Fortunately, the organist changed his mind and played the more hopeful, God Be with You Till We Meet Again. I had no personal interaction with the Archbishop but as a member of the Church, I am just grateful to have been under the umbrella of his leadership and a recipient of the services over which he was superintendent.

It is amazing how much we take for granted until we face losing it. It has been a tough journey since the announcement of the prelate’s death on the eve of Easter Sunday. The community of believers and the country at large has been struggling to come to terms with his untimely demise.

However, some of the hardest moments of loss come not in the immediate aftermath when everyone is surrounding you with comfort. Often, the tough times begin in the long, lonely moments when the mourners have gone. That is when you feel the loss.

During my moments of reflection, I guess I am just grateful to the institution of the Catholic Church for the work and investment put into developing its human resource. Up to this point, I have met only two Catholic bishops at close quarters and in both meetings, I was struck by some unique quality of personality, intellect, conduct or all of the above.

As a young reporter, I landed squarely in the religion beat because for some reason there were many pending church stories no one had been keen to cover until then. So while I had grown up in and around the Church, it took joining the newsroom for me to gain the confidence to approach the altar.

From my first meeting with a retired Bishop, I don’t recall much except for the humility of this individual. For such a highly placed official to be so accessible and unhurried as he answered my questions in a private audience was to my young self an out-of-body experience.

The next time I met a bishop, I had travelled many miles to our meeting and I was struck by his hospitality, fine humour and practical wisdom. This week as we laid the departed archbishop to rest, I guess I was mourning not just what he was but what he stood for.

The church has done a fine job of grooming excellent leaders over the years. You just have to look around, even in your local church parish to find one. Some mourn for a family pillar, others for a mentor, a leader, friend and confidante.

We shall all miss the great stewardship of the late Archbishop Lwanga but when the dust settles, I do not mourn in the same way as those who knew him well. Mine are tears of gratitude for the parents who gave us the wonderful man, for the institution which groomed him for leadership and for the Grace of God which allowed him to be the man we celebrate.

Ms Nampewo is a writer, editor and communications consultant     
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