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UGANDA ANTENNA

FAITH AND JUSTICE NEWSLETTER
Issue no 22 - May 2005

Mobile teams program
Moroto (12-02-05); Kasana-Luwero (07-04-05);.
Kasese (23-04-05). In all three Dioceses, the Religious attended in good numbers and engaged very actively in the process of identifying their issues of concern, reflection on them and recommending steps for action.
In all of them, the participants found that one day session is too short. They suggest that for the second round, we take at least two days per session.

(It is really up to you the ARU Branches !!!)

Here are the next sessions lined up:
May
14-05-05: Kampala Centre: at ARU secretariat
16-05-05: Mityana at the Diocesan Head Quarters
28-05-05: Kampala Mpigi at Ggoli Parish
28-05-05: Masaka at Bwanda Mother House
28-05-05: Kabale at Rushoroza
June
17+18-06-05: Tororo Mbale at the Benedictine Srs
18-6-05: Jinja at Mbiko Sacred Heart Srs
July
16-07-05: Kampala Entebbe at Gogonya

The ARU Branches of Fort Portal, Hoima and Mbarara are in the process of choosing dates. We also await responses from other Dioceses.

Mgr.Dr. Joseph Obunga RIP
We thank the Lord for the gift the former Secretary General of the Uganda Episcopal Conference was for the Church in Uganda. And we pray that he get his reward. We pray also for those who were working with him especially to prepare the AMECEA Plenary due to take place in June.

AMECEA-JPIC Commission Meeting
It took place in Nairobi April 11-13/2005)
1) They ask for a Bishop Chairman.
2) Strengthen the link between the social, economic and political realities affecting the poor and the Social Teaching of the Church.
3) Defend the rights of our people in situations where the violation of Human, Economic and Social Rights causes suffering.

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AACSS
(All Africa conference sister to sister)

1) Four teams have been visiting communities in the four Church Regions. They thank the sisters for their welcome. They also share the difficulties experienced in isolated areas.

2) The seminar of Religious at ARU (April 29-30/2005) was attended by 54 participants, mostly Major Superiors, representing over 30 Institutes. Eight of them were men Religious.
They reflected on the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemics on religious life, as Religious share the concern of the whole country, especially about the orphans within their families and friends.

3) As ARU is composed of all Religious in Uganda, men and women,
Men Institutes are strongly invited
to attend such seminars and participate in the meetings of ARU Branches in the whole country.

Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (May 2-8)
Sr. Laurence Namata and Bro. Vincent Barigye represented Uganda at that meeting.
Once again we must remember that globalisation also affects the Church and our Religious communities.

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From Pope John-Paul II to Pope Benedict XVI

Pope John-Paul is on record as one who worked hard to remind the world about the dignity of every human being, and the task of the Church to influence the deciders at all levels to promote a better world order.

Pope John Paul II' legacy to Uganda
Here is what he said during his trip to Uganda:
(Meeting with the Uganda Episcopal Conference
at Uganda Catholic Secretariat (07/02/1993)

Among the essential components of a sound civic life are such things as the recognition of the dignity of every human person, respect for the rights which are rooted in that dignity - especially the right to life and the right to religious liberty - and an effective commitment to secure the well being of the poor, the weak and the defenceless.

For most of the period since Uganda's independence, these spiritual goods have been - sad to say - under assault by reason of the strife which often pitted those in power against the people and which set citizen against citizen. The fact that the Nation is emerging from the shadows of those years does not mean that all dangers to the culture of peace have passed. Even now the temptation to keep alive and nurture past grievances can pose a threat to society's well being. At this moment in Uganda's history, therefore, it falls to the Church to answer with ever greater fidelity God's injunction to be a reconciling community (cf. Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, No. 8).

Pope Benedict XVI sends the same message (from his inaugural sermon on April 24th 2005):
'Do not be afraid. Henceforth you will be catching men' (Lk 5:1-11). Today too the Church and the successors of the Apostles are told to put out into the deep sea of history and to let down the nets, so as to win men and women over to the Gospel - to God, to Christ, to true life. The Fathers made a very significant commentary on this singular task. This is what they say: for a fish, created for water, it is fatal to be taken out of the sea, to be removed from its vital element to serve as human food. But in the mission of a fisher of men, the reverse is true. We are living in alienation, in the salt waters of suffering and death; in a sea of darkness without light. The net of the Gospel pulls us out of the waters of death and brings us into the splendor of God's light, into true life. It is really true: as we follow Christ in this mission to be fishers of men, we must bring men and women out of the sea that is salted with so many forms of alienation and onto the land of life, into the light of God.

"It is really so: the purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men. And only where God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God.

"Passion for Christ - Passion for Humanity"
The Acts of the Congress on Consecrated Life held in Rome in November 2004 are now published.
(Paulines Publications Africa Ushs 10,000/-)

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Here is the conclusion:

"To-day more than in the past, we need
to divest ourselves and to invent,
to innovate and to go forward".

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Let us pray for the success of the AMECEA Plenary meeting to be held between June 3rd and June 11th. We should also say the prayer about the HIV/AIDS pandemics.

Mary the Mother of Jesus and the Uganda Martyrs are praying with us.