Rubaga ready for Pope Francis

Rubaga Cathedral is one of the places that Pope Francis will visit on Saturday November 29, 2015. He will meet the Bishops at Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga’s home before meeting the rest of the clergy, and seminarians in the cathedral. Juliet Lukwago narrates the story of Rubaga hill.

Sacred Heart of Mary’s Cathedral Rubaga, is the parent cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kampala, the oldest Catholic diocese in Uganda. It is located on Lubaga hill. Lubaga, comes from the Luganda word okubaga, a process of ‘planning’ or ‘making a structure stronger’ during construction. Initially, it was a palace of the king of Buganda.

It is said the White Fathers who brought the Catholic faith to Uganda had problems pronouncing the name with the letter, L. Instead, they used R and it stuck as Rubaga Cathedral.

But while some official documents are written on the L letterheads, the cathedral website has R.

With the papal visit, renovation work at Rubaga Cathedral is on schedule.

The chancellor, Fr Dr Joseph Mary Ssebunnya, says the construction companies are working around the clock to beat the deadlines. Kampala Capital City Authority is working on roads and pavements, while the community, together with Rubaga Cathedral, finished their tree-planting drive along the road to Lubaga and Bakateyamba home.

The block, which housed the archdiocese offices, was demolished and a new one is being constructed.

Rubaga Cathedral the seat of the archbishop is abeautiful architectural wonder of the Romanesque era. When Pope Francis arrives, it will have hosted three Popes.

History

Legend says Lubaga hill was the palace of the 19th Kabaka of Buganda, Ndawula Nsobya, (1724 - 1734). Later, it was used by Buganda’s generals for planning military expeditions. In the late 1800s, Kabaka Muteesa I (1856 – 1884) returned his palace to the hill. When fire destroyed it, he relocated to Mengo Hill.

In 1889, his son Mwanga II, donated the whole of Lubaga hill to the missionaries and urged the residents around to help them build houses.

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The old Rubaga Cathedral constructed in 1901

According to the archives at Rubaga

Cathedral, the first church structure was built with mud and wattle by Bishop Leon Livinhac of the White Fathers. Upon his return to Upper Africa, he was replaced by Bishop Jean-Joseph Hirth. Hirth was officially received by Mwanga on December 8, 1890, the day of Immaculate Heart of Mary. First Lubaga church The first missionaries arrived in Uganda in 1879. By 1890, many churches had been constructed. Pere Simeon Lourdes (known as Mapeera) constructed the first church at Lubya in 1879, Nabulagala (1880), Nalukolongo (1884) and Nabunnya (1889).The fifth church to be built was at Lubaga.

The year 1892, was the worst for the church building because it was destroyed and rebuilt four times. First, it was burnt during the religious wars in Buganda on January 24, 1892. Christian faithfuls hurriedly rebuilt it, but the church got destroyed by an earthquake soon after. They reconstructed it, but the church got burnt again. Still Christians built another one.

In 1894, they decided to construct a larger and more durable church which lasted up to 1901. That church was to host the first ever consecration of a bishop on October, 28, 1895, when Antonin Guillermain was made bishop by Bishop Henry Hanlon of the Mill Hill Missionaries of Nsambya.


The new church

In 1901, a new church was constructed and consecrated on March 19, by Bishop Hanlon of Nsambya during a pontifical mass led by Bishop Henri Streicher (known as Stenseera), who had replaced Guillermain in 1897. This church lasted until 1921 when the present cathedral was built.

In this church, the first priest to be ordained was Fr Consulate from Kenya by Bishop Streicher on March 15, 1906. Later, on May, 18, 1918, Bishop Forbes, who was the coadjutor of (was preparing to take over from) Bishop Streicher was also consecrated in this Church.

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Current cathedral

Streicher’s dream was to build a beautiful church befitting a cathedral. He launched fundraising in 1909 and the first contribution was used to build a bricks factory at Nalukolongo.

The architectural plan was drawn by Brother Gilbert who had to modify it into the present cathedral after the first plan seemed expensive to construct.

 

In 1910, Gilbert constructed a kiln to produce tiles at Kisubi. Technical schools at Kisubi, Gayaza and Lubaga were merged into one St. Joseph’s Technical School.

 

This was meant to train students in brick-laying, carpentry, iron fabrication among others. Lubaga church was used for their practical training as they also earned some money.

 

Christians ferried bricks on their heads from Nalukolongo up the Lubaga hill. Stanislaus Mugwanya, one of the Kabaka’s regents, was one of the team leaders.

He also donated wood for the kiln in Kisubi from his forest at Nabbingo.

Another Christian, Simeo Ssenkatuuka, donated sand and clay soil which was used in the construction of the Cathedral.

Bricks, tiles and other materials from Kisubi were transported using a locally made carts pulled by oxen.

By October 1914, the foundation of the cathedral was complete. However, it stalled for two years because of the World

 

War that raged between 1914 and 1918.

 

In 1922, Bishop Forbes went to Canada to fundraise and also got an unspecified amount of money from Pope Pio XI. He returned after two years with $113,000 and Francs 16,000.

 

Unfortunately, he died a year later on March 13, 1925 before the completion of the cathed al in October the same year.

The cathedral got a facelift as Uganda prepared to host Pope John Paul II in 1969, and much of the architectural design were left intact.

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Fact file:

According to the Uganda Episcopal Conference website, Rubaga was made the seat of a Bishop in 1883 under the Vicariate of Victoria Nyanza.

 

 July 13, 1894. It split from Upper Nile Vicariate and became the Vicariate of Northern Victoria Nyanza.

Janaury 15, 1915. The Vicariate of Uganda was formed.

June 10, 1948.Upper Nile Vicariate became the Vicariate of Kampala, then diocese of Kampala on March 25, 1953.

 

Other dioceses out of the Upper Nile Vicariate were Gulu, Masaka, Mbarara and Tororo.

Archbishop Louis Joseph Cabana WF (1947-1960) was the first Archbishop of Rubaga Archdiocese.

He was succeeded by Archbishop Dr. Joseph Kiwanuka(1960-1965).

August 5, 1966, part of Kampala diocese and Rubaga became the Archdiocese of

Kampala.

 

Archbishop Emmanuel Nsubuga was consecrated on October 30,1966 to become the first administrator. He became cardinal on May 24, 1976, retired on Feb8, 1990 and died on April 20, 1991.

He was succeeded by His Eminence Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala (1990-2006).

New dioceses have been created: Kiyinda-Mityana, (1981), Kasana-Luweero, (1996) and Lugazi, (1996) since then.

The current administrator is Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga.

 

Tomorrow, we shall profile the Bakateyamba home in Nalukolongo.