Missionaries of Africa, Jinja

Last week on Wednesday at the audience, Pope Francis made a proposal to all Christians, that at Easter we should greet one another saying: “Il Cristo e risorto; E veramente risorto”, which means Christ is risen, and the other answers: He is truly risen. It’s a way of wishing that the Risen Lord may be alive in each one of us. Dear brothers and sisters, this night is the Mother of All Nights. It is because of this night that we are here, that I know you and you know me, that some left Kenya, Tanzania, Mbarara, Spain, South Korea, America and even Congo to be here. But on this night, Christ is risen and this is the foundation of our faith. That is why this night is different from others; it is the Mother of All Nights. What is the meaning of Easter? To speak of it, I will use the word “Pasch” because it is closer to the origin. In some of our Bantu and local languages, it is PASKA. This word is from Hebrew PESAH (Swahili people, don’t think of money!) and...

We left our house at 6:15am and arrived in Kampala around 8am. We were nine candidates of the Missionaries of Africa, Lavigerie house-Jinja, and four aspirants from Holy Cross sisters who joined us. The whole pilgrimage was guided by Fr. Otto Kato, the vocation animator of Missionaries of Africa, Uganda sector. Easter Monday was one of the well spent days in Lavigerie house, as we continued to enjoy the fruits of Easter. It is a tradition here in Lavigerie house that every Easter Monday the first years go out to pay pilgrimage to the remarkable and Holy sites of Missionaries of Africa, as well as, the Catholic Church in Uganda and the whole world at large. Most of the areas we visited were Namugongo Catholic Martyr’s shrine and protestant shrine, Kigungu, the place where our first missionaries (Brother Amans and Fr. Loudel Mapeera),  stepped the first foot when the just entered Buganda Kingdom. Another place we visited was Namulagala parish where the first missionaries cel...

Bamutaze Jean-Marie Vianney One of my profound moments in my three-year-journey in Lavigerie House has been in the pillar of pastoral work, one of the four formation pillars. I have done pastoral in various places in the three years and they have all been moments of joy, challenge, strength and growth, but I would like to put to light the one of my final (third) year in Lavigerie House: which is Home of Hope, where I have worked for a full year. Home of Hope is a home or center for children with multiple disabilities, they offer internal and outreach (home based) services to handicapped children. They offer different basic services, among them are; parental love and care, basic needs, education, empowerment, therapies, the list is endless. This is done after studying the nature of the debility of the child and then assess what he or she is able to do. Before my appointment to Home of Hope, I had had and heard enough prejudices, biases and rumors, all these were surely ne...