Rev. Fr. Ngobya remains exhumed after 26 years

By Ali Mambule

Catholics from different parts of Uganda were on Tuesday astonished to learn that the heart, lungs, part of the brain and the kidney belonging to the late Msgr. Aloysius Ngobya who died 26 years ago were found intact.           

Bishop John Baptist Kaggwa of the Masaka diocese told thousands of the believers who turned up for a special mass to pray for Msgr. Ngobya and the Sr. Amedeo Byabari at Kitovu Cathedral that the former’s clothes were also recovered when his grave was dug.           

“I would not have said this but I was given the permission to declare what we recovered from the two servants of God’s graves,” Bishop Kaggwa told the Catholics who chanted and sang in praise of God.           

The mass was also meant to publicly announce the team that was given the task to investigate and the acts of the two deceased persons to establish the truth about claims that they performed miracles before they are declared saints.           

Reynard Cruise told the gathering that the work of investigating the acts of the two people begun earlier in 2002. The mother general Mary Magdalene Nakirijja of the Bannabiikira Sisters requested Bishop John Baptist Kaggwa to initiate the study or opening the ratification for Sr. Amedeo Byabari.          

“In the same year, the Bishop also received a similar request from a number of Catholics for Msgr. Ngobya," Cruise, the deputy postulate in this work told the gathering.           

He said that after eight years of critically analyzing the claims, Bishop Kaggwa decided to let the investigations into the ratification of the two servants of God to begin as stated by the Catholic faith.         

Investigations

On October 10, 2010, Dr. Wadray Rudman was appointed to investigate the issues and Rudman in turn appointed Cruise to deputize him.         

"On October 12, I requested Bishop Kaggwa to carry out investigations in the Diocese which investigations the Bishop is officially launching today," Cruise added.       

Cruise, the vice postulator read the cause of the investigations of both Msgr. Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo and submitted the copies to the Bishop together with a list of witnesses and opinion of the theological census.        

Two historical committees in charge of the two servants of God were sworn in together with other members to carry out the work.  

 Two coffins containing Msgr. Ngoby's remains (on his left) and that of Sr. Amedeo Byabari in Kitovu cathedral on Tuesday.

 Whereas Fr. John Baptist Kintu was sworn in as the chairperson for Msgr. Ngobya's committee, Sr. Sebastian from Bwanda was sworn in as the chairperson for Sr. Amedeo Byabari's committee.           

Rev. Fr. Alex Sekatawa, the notary of the first session which sat in Kitovu Cathedral during the mass on Tuesday said that during the Episcopal conference that sat at St. Augustine's Institute Nsambya, the President of the conference the, Archbishop of Gulu John Baptist Odama asked the assembled Bishops for their opinion regarding the advisability of introducing the ratification and canonization causes of Msgr. Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo Byabari as requested by Bishop Kaggwa of Masaka diocese, and the assembly approved it.           

No Rome flight for remains

While preaching to the Catholics, Bishop Kaggwa assured that the remains of the two servants of God would not be flown to Rome as some people had thought.            

"We shall keep the remains amidst us and be contented that no-one would take them away," Bishop Kaggwa said but he did not highlight whether Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo would be reburied.            

However, Bishop Kaggwa said that permission would soon be granted to believers who wanted to be given a chance to visit the place where Msgr. Ngobya's grave was.           

"That place is now holy. Everyone will be given chance to visit it but you only need to be patient," the Bishop added.          

He urged Ugandans to respect each other's religion and condemned those who changed religion like clothes, and called upon  to respect the issue of matrimonial homes. He lashed at those who went in for trial marriages.          

"Msgr. Ngobya and Sr. Amedeo came from religious and respectable families which all of you must fight to achieve," he said.          

Bishop Kaggwa stressed that Msgr. Ngobya was a Ugandan who knew politics and prophesied that the National Resistance Army would take over the Uganadan government then before his death, which became a reality.           

"Don't ask me what he would say about today's politics because I'll not speak for him," Kaggwa added.He called for justice for everyone saying that there were a number of innocent people rotting in prisons.

Msgr. Ngobya's grave remained enclosed and condoned off.