Pope Francis travelled to Uganda's
holiest shrine on Saturday, paying tribute to 19th century Christian martyrs
killed for their faith, including for protecting young boys in the royal court
from abuse by the king.
Francis, on the second leg of his
first African tour, said Mass for tens of thousands of people huddled on muddy
hillsides surrounding the soaring modern shrine made of iron and cone-shaped to
resemble a hut of the Baganda tribe.
Twenty-five Anglicans and 22 Catholic
converts where killed during the persecutions, mostly by being burned to death,
between 1884 and 1887 on the orders of King Buganda Mwanga II.
The most famous of the Catholic
converts and martyrs was Charles Lwanga, a prefect in the royal court who was in
charge of the boy pages and was killed because he tried to protect the children
from the sexual advances of the king.
After their conversion they tried to
spread the faith to other groups. Catholics now make up about 40 percent of the
population. Churches run many schools and hospitals around the country.
"They did this in dangerous
times," the pope said during a Mass celebrated from a concrete island on
an artificial lake on the shrine complex outside the capital Kampala.
Traditional singing and dancing gave
way to a Western-style church choir as the pope walked to the altar via a
gangway over the lake, which was guarded by police scuba divers in dinghies.
"Not only were their lives
threatened but so too were the lives of the younger boys under their care,"
he said.
Uganda has been seen as a bastion of
anti-gay sentiment since 2013, when it sought to toughen penalties, with some
lawmakers pushing for the death penalty or life in prison for some actions
involving gay sex.
The law was overturned on procedural
grounds, but not before U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry compared it to
anti-Semitic legislation in Nazi Germany. Other Western donors were outraged.
Gay rights activists in Uganda said
before the visit that they hoped the pope would make a gesture of tolerance to
homosexuals.
Failing to address the issue would
be "a missed opportunity to protect LGBT persons," said activist
Frank Mugisha.
In the prepared text of his homily
for the Mass, the pope praised the martyrs for telling the king "what the
gospel does not allow," an apparent reference to homosexual acts.
The pope, however, did not read that
part of the homily. It was not clear if he decided to remove it.
The Church teaches that while
homosexual tendencies are not a sin, homosexual acts are. It also says
homosexuals should be respected in the Church and society but that Catholic
homosexuals should remain chaste.
The pope first visited a separate
shrine to the 25 Anglican martyrs before saying Mass at the nearby shrine to
the Catholic martyrs, who were made saints by Pope Paul VI in 1964.
Later on Saturday, the pope was due
to hold a rally with Ugandan youth and visit a Church-run home for the poor.
On Sunday morning, he is due to
leave for the Central African Republic, potentially the most dangerous stop on
his trip.
For nearly three years, the Central
African Republic has been embroiled in an inter-religious conflict that has
effectively split it in two. Thousands have been killed and more than one in
five have fled internally or sought refuge abroad.
*YOUR COMMENTS/OPINIONS WOULD BE
APPRECIATED*
SOURCE:REUTERS
0 Comment to "Pope Francis Visits Ugandan Shrine Amid Gay Rights Debate"
Post a Comment