Archbishop Lwanga Laid to Rest as Ssemogerere Takes Interim Charge

  • by Rodney Mponye
  • April 9, 2021

The late archbishop of Kampala Dr Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has been laid to rest inside Rubaga Cathedral in Kampala. Lwanga died of a heart attack last Saturday according to a postmortem report released by the doctors.

At the burial, Lwanga was hailed for his commitment to the development of the Church and his efforts to ensure better quality of life of Ugandans. According to President Yoweri Museveni, the government and Uganda as a whole will miss him for his wise counsel and a practical approach to religion, which saw him transform people’s lives.

In his message read by vice president Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi, the president contributed Shs 300 million towards burial costs. Museveni added that although the government gave Lwanga an official burial for his contributions to national development, henceforth this will be accorded to all religious leaders at the level equivalent to an archbishop.

The Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II hailed Lwanga for his developmental ideas which he personally shared through the projects he led within the kingdom. Mutebi expressed sadness that the archbishop has died before commissioning a museum he had set up at Rubaga hill and named it after his father Ssekabaka Mutesa I. The museum was set to be opened in April last year but was disrupted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While delivering his message, Buganda Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga said that despite Lwanga being a top religious leader, he did not shy away from supporting the traditional and cultural development of the kingdom. Mayiga said that unfortunately, the way Lwanga died, it did not give the kingdom a chance to visit him during sickness.

Earlier, it was announced that Bishop Paul Ssemogerere of the Kasana-Luweero diocese will oversee the archdiocese as its apostolic administrator until a substantive archbishop is appointed. This was contained in the Pope’s message to the Church, read by his representative to Uganda, (Papal Nuncio) archbishop Bianco Luigi.

Bishop Paul Ssemogerere

The chairperson of the Episcopal Conference, Bishop Anthony Zziwa, explained that Bishop Ssemogerere remains diocesan bishop of Luwero and only will govern the diocese in the name of the supreme pontiff and coordinate the day to day work of the archdiocese until the Pope names the new archbishop.

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