Church leaders failing us
May 12, 2010
I was invited by the First Lady’s office to discuss with fellow experts how we can help married couples improve their fidelity. It is absurd that in Uganda, HIV reigns supreme among married people! Like Noah’s ark, marriage is supposed to save people from floods.
I was invited by the First Lady’s office to discuss with fellow experts how we can help married couples improve their fidelity. It is absurd that in Uganda, HIV reigns supreme among married people! Like Noah’s ark, marriage is supposed to save people from floods. But instead, married couples are the wettest and the most drowning.
We noted that, among other reasons, people do not take their spirituality very seriously. And they are not helped to by the religious leaders we esteem so highly.
That brings me into this debate of Rev Fr Santos Constantino Wapokura, a Catholic priest in Nebbi, who allegedly defiled two girls and possibly infected them with HIV! The man is being helped to play hide and seek with the Police!
I am a Catholic who also tried to become a priest. Every time I mention that I was in a seminary, people gasp in a way that seems like a sigh of relief. It has happened many times. The latest being when I was inducted into Rotary and, more recently, when I was giving the keynote address at a young authors forum at the National Theatre last week.
I was racing along priestly rails when my rector — who is no longer with us, told me one Monday morning, that he thought my calling was elsewhere.
And as a direct result, this world has become more evil: Marriages are hollow, trust is a rare foreigner, leaders are corrupt, HIV is having a good time, sin is reigning, and indeed, the Church seems to be fighting Satan with similar acid that was used on Nakimera. I do not think I would have punched with gloves.
Our churches are like traffic policemen who do not necessarily stop accidents, but are everywhere, benefiting from traffic sins. If everybody behaved, they would be out of work, probably on the streets begging for food. So it cannot be in their interest to have a sinless world. This happens when spirituality is institutionalised; churches end up more concerned with image than justice, looking for alliances with other churches they oppose from the pulpit, praying for the restoration of idolatry and presiding over an inscrutable order, where the polygamous get a church burial while the local church going peasant is excommunicated for being seen near a shrine.
And sometimes, like a father who defiles his own daughter, we get priests who betray social trust by storming out of celibate vows to wiggle with the women they open-eyedly vowed to fast from. People are crying, the Pope is crying, God is crying and I am also giving my contribution of tears.
I once asked the Cardinal about the morality of our priests and he said before God, the sins of a priest and mine are similar. After pondering on this for some time, I have an opinion: No! They are not similar! Unless he brings God to say so himself. Sin is not only wrong doing, but also the impact of that wrong to the environment. That is why when Fr Wapokura defiles a girl, there are many who justify their weakness and dive into the deep end. For every Wapokura, there are hundreds who sin more. And it does not help our church to try and protect him from the courts of law. It only further dilutes the acid prepared for Satan’s face.
In a home, when a father is violent, unfaithful and dictatorial, the sons learn a trait or two. In church, when a pastor rapes his sheep, the congregation see a licence to indulge. In politics, when a president closes an eye to a fraudulent friend, corruption spreads by domino effect.
Maybe we should keep the celibacy criteria optional because people decide to become celibate priests at a time when they are totally unaware of their own resistance capacity against what they will be missing. We lose out on serious priestly materials who cannot serve because of the celibacy criterion. But that is an argument for another time.
It is fun throwing stones at other people. But when you look hard at these kiwani priests and pastors, you are likely to see yourself. For if you are able to read this newspaper, know that there are many people looking up to you in awe as a role model. So before you succumb to sexual deviation, know that you can easily constitute mud, in which many will slide off the road.
Of course, there are priests who are chaste, traffic cops who do not take bribes, musicians who do not take drugs and politicians who are not corrupt. They do not deserve mention because they are doing what they are supposed to do, not anything extraordinary.
It is true, the fish rots beginning from the head. Maybe we need to focus morality lessons there and all the rest will fall in line.
We noted that, among other reasons, people do not take their spirituality very seriously. And they are not helped to by the religious leaders we esteem so highly.
That brings me into this debate of Rev Fr Santos Constantino Wapokura, a Catholic priest in Nebbi, who allegedly defiled two girls and possibly infected them with HIV! The man is being helped to play hide and seek with the Police!
I am a Catholic who also tried to become a priest. Every time I mention that I was in a seminary, people gasp in a way that seems like a sigh of relief. It has happened many times. The latest being when I was inducted into Rotary and, more recently, when I was giving the keynote address at a young authors forum at the National Theatre last week.
I was racing along priestly rails when my rector — who is no longer with us, told me one Monday morning, that he thought my calling was elsewhere.
And as a direct result, this world has become more evil: Marriages are hollow, trust is a rare foreigner, leaders are corrupt, HIV is having a good time, sin is reigning, and indeed, the Church seems to be fighting Satan with similar acid that was used on Nakimera. I do not think I would have punched with gloves.
Our churches are like traffic policemen who do not necessarily stop accidents, but are everywhere, benefiting from traffic sins. If everybody behaved, they would be out of work, probably on the streets begging for food. So it cannot be in their interest to have a sinless world. This happens when spirituality is institutionalised; churches end up more concerned with image than justice, looking for alliances with other churches they oppose from the pulpit, praying for the restoration of idolatry and presiding over an inscrutable order, where the polygamous get a church burial while the local church going peasant is excommunicated for being seen near a shrine.
And sometimes, like a father who defiles his own daughter, we get priests who betray social trust by storming out of celibate vows to wiggle with the women they open-eyedly vowed to fast from. People are crying, the Pope is crying, God is crying and I am also giving my contribution of tears.
I once asked the Cardinal about the morality of our priests and he said before God, the sins of a priest and mine are similar. After pondering on this for some time, I have an opinion: No! They are not similar! Unless he brings God to say so himself. Sin is not only wrong doing, but also the impact of that wrong to the environment. That is why when Fr Wapokura defiles a girl, there are many who justify their weakness and dive into the deep end. For every Wapokura, there are hundreds who sin more. And it does not help our church to try and protect him from the courts of law. It only further dilutes the acid prepared for Satan’s face.
In a home, when a father is violent, unfaithful and dictatorial, the sons learn a trait or two. In church, when a pastor rapes his sheep, the congregation see a licence to indulge. In politics, when a president closes an eye to a fraudulent friend, corruption spreads by domino effect.
Maybe we should keep the celibacy criteria optional because people decide to become celibate priests at a time when they are totally unaware of their own resistance capacity against what they will be missing. We lose out on serious priestly materials who cannot serve because of the celibacy criterion. But that is an argument for another time.
It is fun throwing stones at other people. But when you look hard at these kiwani priests and pastors, you are likely to see yourself. For if you are able to read this newspaper, know that there are many people looking up to you in awe as a role model. So before you succumb to sexual deviation, know that you can easily constitute mud, in which many will slide off the road.
Of course, there are priests who are chaste, traffic cops who do not take bribes, musicians who do not take drugs and politicians who are not corrupt. They do not deserve mention because they are doing what they are supposed to do, not anything extraordinary.
It is true, the fish rots beginning from the head. Maybe we need to focus morality lessons there and all the rest will fall in line.