By Juliet Lukwago

Last Tuesday, the Catholic Church in Uganda celebrated 136 years since first Catholic missionaries arrived in the country. Fr Simeon Lourdel (Mapeera) and Br. Delmas Amans, (Amansi) were the first to come to Uganda in 1879. Within their first six years, they had converts who had fearless determination and were willing to die for Christianity. Joseph Mukasa became the first to be executed on November 15, 1885, followed by 45 more.

22 of these were recognised by the Catholic Church as martyrs and declared saints on October 18, 1964. But their mentors and teachers, Lourdel and Amans, are still not recognised as saints. According to Fr Richard Nyombi, the chairman of the Mapeera and Amans beatification committee, the process of canonisation for Mapeera and Amansi was launched by Emmanuel Cardinal Kiwanuka Nsubuga in 1987.

Cardinal Nsubuga appointed Bishop Joseph Mukwaya, (RIP), as the first chairman of the Mapeera’s canonisation committee. When Mukwaya died, Fr Benedict Ssebulege succeeded him. The committee, however, became dormant until the Archbishop of Kampala, Dr Cyprian Kizito Lwanga renewed the process in January 2010 and added Br. Amans onto the list. He appointed a new committee led by Msgr David Kyeyune, (RIP), Fr Emmanuel Kimbowa, Fr Charles Ssengendo, Fr Joseph Mukasa Muwonge, Fr Joseph Sserugga and Fr John Ssajjalyabene and Nyombi.

“At this stage, the diocese, with permission from Rome, is documenting the virtues of Mapeera and Amansi, to present to Rome. They are, therefore, referred to as Servants of God. The committee is looking for miracles achieved through their exclusive intercession. Such miracles are forwarded to the respective parish priests who send them to the committee offices at Lubaga Cathedral,” Nyombi said.

“So far we have 27 people from Bbiina, Kitebi and Nabulagala who have claimed favours and miracles. Nyombi attributed the delay of their beatification to the communication problem. “Now that communication is easier than before, Archbishop Lwanga wrote to parishes and dioceses to start gathering that kind of information.”

The other problem, however, is that the committee members are not full time investigators. They have jobs and cannot devote all their time to this cause.” he added. According to Nyombi, one of the miracle claims the committee has received, verified and registered is from Florence Namakula Bbosa, a 65-year-old widow from Kabuusu – Lubaga. Namakula claims that through the exclusive intercession from Mapeera and Amansi, God stabilised her uterus, enabled her to have children, brought back her husband and enabled him, an Anglican by faith, to wed her in the Catholic church.

Saturday Vision paid her a visit and she declared, “Even if they do not eventually get to be declared saints, I have no doubts in my mind that they are there.” Namakula said she miscarried her first pregnancy in 1973 and a doctor, whose name she only remembers as Dr Dagan, told her that her uterus was too wide to hold the foetus and that she would never have children. Stubbornly, she continued trying and altogether got 18 miscarriages and still births; eight at Nsambya Hospital, seven at Mulago Hospital and two at Mityana Hospital. “I tried local interventions too

I remember Mukyala Katende, a herbalist in Namangooma along Masaka highway, who tried her best and still, it did not work out.” It was when she went to see a priest, Fr James Kabuye, for spiritual advice, who advised her to see Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga. “I explained that my husband was an Anglican and that he could not marry me because of the miscarriages.

Cardinal Nsubuga comforted and told me about Lourdel Mapeera. At first, he seemed sarcastic, but I still heeded his advice. He told me to pray exclusively through Mapeera and gave me a prayer. I was supposed to recite it relentlessly and wait for a miraculous cure.” Within a year, her husband, Bbosa, had warmed up to her and on November 26, 1983, allowed to wed her in the Catholic Church at Kiyinda-Mityana Cathedral. “But the biggest miracle of all was when my 19th pregnancy after the wedding was carried through to childbirth.

I was scared at first. But the cardinal asked me to be confident and keep praying through Mapeera and Amansi daily. He even joked that I would get a baby boy and that he would be the one to baptise him. On February 2, 1985, I delivered my miracle boy. Cardinal Nsubuga baptised him Emmanuel Simeon.” Later, her husband left. When she went to the cardinal for advice, he again prescribed Mapeera and Amansi

“I started a novena for the return of my husband and even added that when he comes back, he gives me two more children; a girl and a boy. I promised God that if I first delivered the girl, I would name her Maria- Gorreth and the boy, Charles.” Within months, her husband had returned. They got twins on December 14, 1989.

She named the girl Maria-Gorreth Babirye and the boy, Charles Kato. Her husband died in 1997 when the twins were only eight. The twins will graduate from university this year.

Faithful departed

Canonisation is a process of recognising that a person is a saint in heaven. It begins with the promoters documenting the life and virtues of the deceased and approaching their parish priest to begin the process. The parish priest, when convinced, forwards the petition to the bishop, who constitutes a committee to study the petition. If convinced, the Bishop applies to the Vatican for the initialisation of a Cause for Beatification and Canonisation.

The Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints then investigates the facts on the ground and, if convinced, permits the initiating Bishop to start. At that level, the faithful departed becomes Servant of God

Servant of God

This is the level at which Mapeera and Amans are. Other Ugandans are Msgr. Aloysius Ngobya and Sister Amadeo Byabari of Masaka Diocese, who were declared Servant of God by the Vatican on February 18, 2013. The diocese responsible establishes a postulation, or a department to promote the cause, to gather testimonies about the life and virtues of the Servant of God. The findings, when approved, are forwarded to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. Rome appoints a relator to superintend the cause through the rest of the process.

The Relator verifies the documents and presents them to the theological commission and members of the Congregation for a vote. If recommended, the Pope pronounces a Decree ‘Heroic in Virtue’ in which the Servant of God becomes the Venerable.

Venerable

A Venerable has no feast day, no churches in his or her honour and the church has made no statement on the person’s probable presence in heaven, but prayer cards and other materials may be printed to encourage the faithful to pray for a miracle through the Venerable’s intercession. Rome announces this to the world and any miracle received is recorded and verified at the diocese where it occurs.

Every miracle must be verified by the scientific commission using accepted scientific criteria. This implies that, while any miracle can be reported, those which can be proven are usually of a medical nature like cured diseases that were judged beyond hope using medicine.

Once the scientific commission decides the cure is without natural explanation, the theological commission must also rule that its nature can only be attributed to God. The General Meeting of the cardinals and bishops vote on it before it is forwarded to the Pope. If the pope approves, the Servant of God is then beatified and declared the Blessed

The Blessed

Beatification is a statement by the church that it is “worthy of belief” that the person is in heaven. Blesseds are allowed public veneration, usually restricted to those dioceses in which they lived.

Catholics can dedicate days, public events and communal prayers to them, but parishes may not be named after them. The Blessed Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa of Gulu Archdiocese were beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 20, 2002.

After beatification the Church looks for a second miracle before proceeding to canonisation. The process is similar to the first miracle. It should be noted that martyrs don’t require a second miracle because martyrdom is understood as a miracle of grace. Once the Congregation approves true martyrdom, the pope issues a Decree of Martyrdom.

Saint

By the Rite of Canonisation the pope declares the Blessed into a saint. The Pope does not make the person a saint, rather, he declares that the Church has proved that the person is with God.

The saint is added to the general calendar of the Church or a region of the world, or a particular community they are relevant to. Churches, communities, people and causes can then be named after them. Uganda has 22 saints, The Uganda Martyrs, who were canonised on 18 October1969 by Pope Paul VI.

Compiled by Angel Nabweteme

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NewVision Reporter

Journalist @NewVision

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