Revival of national chaplaincies will boost work ethics

Chaplains are of profound significance in most  national institutions. Some institutions refer to chaplains as faith-advisers, inter/multi-faith advisers, belief contacts, contacts among many titles as Austin et.al.(2020) writes. 

Many national institutions in Uganda may comfortably achieve their goals however, with the assistance of chaplains, the human resource character may be moulded better for the benefit of these institutions and nation at large.

 Chaplaincy policies should be embraced by all national institutions since policies are a set of rules or guidelines for an organisation to achieve compliance.

In the medieval times, chaplains were clerics charged with guarding the cape (chape) or cloak of St. Martin of Tours. Martin of Tours (c. 317–397) was a Roman soldier who later converted to Christianity. 

He cut his cloak into half in order to share it with the half-naked beggar at the gate of the city of Amiens in Northern France. 
The beggar appeared to him in a dream-vision and revealed himself to be Christ. For this understanding of a chaplain as someone who shares support with those in storms of life and offers some spiritual help and direction in those particular and other ordinary times.

Chaplains in education institutions play a great role to enable learners swim through some storms of lives.  

  Unfortunately, some learners, academic and non-academic staff clearly know the routes to their chaplaincies but hardly participate in their programmes.

 Uganda Christian University chaplaincy conducts Ecumenical gatherings with St. Mary’s National Seminary Ggaba through their association (Gmec) at least once in an academic year. 

Ecumenical debates are part of the programmes that are held whenever they come into contact.  Through such programmes, learners learn to amicably listen to one another and dialogue irrespective of their differences in creed. 

It is a great initiative of taming humanity other than appealing to destructive strikes and violence whenever there is a difference. This chaplaincy programme might be a contribution to these students who do turn their campuses into ivory fists and iron.

With the revival and effective use of the chaplains in the national institutions like in the military, police, immigration, Electoral Commission and  medical fraternities, among others, the human resource in these institutions is most likely to exhibit higher quality professional ethics. 

For instance military or police chaplains will attend to the spiritual wellbeing, combat stress, moral guidance of soldiers and their families. This may help them to perform their duties in a more ethical manner even when they retire. 

Retired Staff Sargent Vincent Ssewakiryanga Kabanga in Bunamweri village, Mpigi District applauds the spiritual nourishment and moral ethics that he was accorded by their army chaplains ( the late Rev. Frs.  Capt.  Joseph Kalyabe and Musooka) in the Uganda Army. 

Through their efforts ( his chaplain’s) this veteran strives to live by those spiritual and moral guidance.   

Furthermore, chaplaincies might be avenues for fighting corruption in our country thus avoiding the international shame as a nation. 

Basing on Uganda Corruption Perceptions index 2001-2020, Uganda’s score is at 27 per cent. The scores relate to perceptions of degree of corruption as seen by business people, country analysts, the ranges are between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

 Therefore, 27 per cent being closer to 0 and not 100 qualifies our country as highly corrupt in comparison with Rwanda at approximately 51 per cent! It is not a shock but a shame!

 We should credit the institutions that have opted and effectively made use of their chaplaincies and it is a proposal for most if not all national institutions to opt for chaplaincies.

Rev Fr Nicholas Kayongo is a curate at Holy Trinity Catholic Parish, Kampala Archdiocese