FROMA to support missionaries of Africa

Members of the association of the Relatives and Friends of Missionaries of Africa (FROMA) have pledged to offer greater support and goodwill to the congregation.

Achilles Kiwanuka, a former candidate, said the congregation needed greater local support than ever, owing to the effects of global economic recessions and pandemics.

 "Foreign aid is continuously dwindling.  Our brethren in Europe and the US also have their own pressures. The local Church thus has to become self-sustaining. The local Christians must also be mindful to the needs of the religious institutes, which have for so long been relying on international support and goodwill."

Joseph Kigozi, another ex-seminarian of the Missionaries of Africa (popularly referred to as White Fathers) also called for more local support to the congregation (White Fathers), which he said set pace for Catholic evangelism in Uganda, subsequent to the advent of two of the society's confreres, Fr Simeon Lourdel Mapeera and Bro Delmas Amans, who arrived in Uganda on February 17, 1979.

Meanwhile, the former seminarians, relatives and friends of the Missionaries of Africa have expressed joy over the sacerdotal ordination of Agaba Lini Masaati, a Ugandan conferere of the congregation.

Massati, who hails from Kasambya parish, in Kyinda Mityana Diocese, was ordained by the Chairman of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, Prof Joseph Antony Zziwa at Lourdel House, Nsambya, in Makindye Division.

In a subsequent interview with New Vision, Masaati expressed his willingness and readiness to take up his new appointment.

 "My vocational journey has been marked by joys and challenges, roses and thorns. The joys take a big part of it all though. In all I give thanks to God. It is a divine project whereby with my own efforts and abilities, nothing could be realized. All is by his grace and it is always sufficient for me.

"He who started it all will always give me enough strength to do His will. Saint Padre Pio is my companion on this missionary journey. Mother Mary is my Mother who knows all I want in order to be a fulfilled missionary priest. The Uganda martyrs, who witnessed their faith in Christ at the cost of their lives, pray for me to have the same faith."

Agaba has been appointed to Burundi, where he is going to serve as the curate of St. Augustine Catholic parish, Buyenzi, in the vicinity of Bujumbura.