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Sanctus Lino Wanok, the bishop of Lira Catholic diocese on Palm Sunday dedicated Lira city to God ahead of the 2026 general elections.

Bishop Wanok said when the electoral season is active, people go overboard to the extent of not seeing eye-to-eye with his or her political rivals.

This he said is the kind of bad politics that has already entered Lira city where people have started bickering, fighting and assassinating one another’s character, an act which he warned is a ‘sin against the Holy Spirit’.

“I was very ashamed when I heard that people have started fighting in Lira city (where this cathedral stands), and most of them are Catholics and they even say I (Bishop Wanok is part of it). As a bishop, I am out of that type of politics, even if they say I am there,” he noted.

Bishop Wanok who was the main celebrant during the 9:00 am Palm Sunday English mass at Uganda Martyrs Cathedral Lira, urged the Christians to embrace and be proud of the politics of love, and humility and desist from useless politics of division.

St. Joseph Cathedral 9am choir animating the Mass on Palm Sunday at Uganda Martyrs Cathedral-Lira. (Photo by Joseph Ekol)

He emphasised that a good politician does not even campaign but does good things and the good works talk for him or her.

About the Holy Week

The bishop called on the Christians to use this Holy Week starting on Monday, to donate whatever little God has given them to the diocese so they can deliver to the neighbouring Karamojong people who are desperately suffering hunger and other problems.

He said street kids should also be remembered as a category of people who are in dire need of assistance, revealing that the Lira Catholic diocese with financial support from an organisation (name withheld), has taken back a total of 25 street children to school in an attempt to reduce the number of street children for to restore sanity in the city.

Climate Change

He said the sensitisation of people on climate change will also start next week, urging the Christians to embrace this by ensuring that the green vegetation is like grasses and trees are preserved.

“The heat has come as a result of the bad things we have been doing to the environment. We either act or die,” the bishop warned, appealing to people to avoid burning or digging the valley and use the soil well to plant crops wisely to avoid soil erosion when rains come back.