En - Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga - Rebuilding Hope and Solidarity in Today's Families

8/11/2019 En - Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga - Rebuilding Hope and Solidarity in Today's Families

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REBUILDING HOPE AND SOLIDARITY IN TO-DAYS

FAMILIES

THE EXPERIENCE OF AN AFRICAN DIOCESE

18th

October 2014Rome

1. INTRODUCTION

In the very first place I wish to thank the President of the Pontifical Council

for the Family, His Excellency, Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia and His Eminence

Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga for inviting me to participate at this very

important Seminar on the Family a theme that shall be treated at the coming

synod of Bishops in October 2014.

This theme comes at the time when the Holy Father, Pope Francis and the

entire Church Leadership is calling upon the entire Catholic Church in the

world to renew the Evangelization Apostolate in the Catholic Church.

In my humble opinion New Evangelization, if it is to succeed, must be

supported by three pillars namely;

a) Knowing the Faith with Humility

b) Living the Faith with Simplicity

c) Sharing the Faith with Love

These basic pillars that have to support the Family are not strong enough for

many couples, hence the bitter challenges in many of our Children

2. THE STATE OF THE FAMILY IN KAMPALA ARCHDIOCESE -

UGANDA

We have a fully-fledged Department of Marriage and Family Life co-

ordinated by a Priest Rev. Fr. Dominic Mwebe who is at the same time aParish Priest of a New Vibrant Parish called Nansana which is situated in a

heavily populated suburb of Kampala City.

The Department caters for the two Parents in the Family namely Husband and

Wife reminding them of their parental, pastoral and social responsibility. It

also caters for children in a Family reminding the children that they are a gift

from God to the parents in a family setting. Parents are not producers like

factories but are co-operators in Gods work of creation. They share in Gods


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work of procreation and are not just reproducers! Hence the needs for a

genuine family planning exercise in the Church.

Canon 1055 establishes that the marriage covenant is directed to the

procreation and upbringing of children and that it is elevated to the dignity ofa Sacrament. The conjugal union born of the covenant is described as a

communion of the whole life. This Canon repeats the conciliar teaching on this

subject inGranduium et SpesNo.48.

The Family life Department teaches about the Biblical origin of the Family and

that marriage is a gift from God as described in the Book of Genesis 2:18,24.

The essential properties of marriage are Unity and Indissolubility (Mt.

19:3-12; Mk 10 2- 12) plus the fact that marriage is indeed the primary cell of

society with the responsibility of raising children in a decent matter; promotea God-Fearing family community, strengthened by a strong prayer-life, guided

by a strong spirit of Love of God and neighbor with a deep respect for each

others life as stated in the Vatican II Document Gravissimum

Educationis No.3 ; Gaudium et spesNo. 49, 52.

3. THE NECESSITY FOR PREPARING WELL FOR MATRIMONY

The guidelines of Church discipline in this regard is highly respected and

taught, that the 3 stages of marriage preparation are necessary namely:

(a)The remote preparation programme whereby agents of

evangelization give instructions to the youth in Schools about the

importance of marriage

(b)The Programme Proximate Preparation in each parish we have what we

call a Tuesday Class whereby 3 weeks prior to marriage a special

well prepared course is conducted for the spouses intending to marry

and this is animated by a priest together with a team of experienced

couples to those preparing for marriage. It is at this stage that these

intending to marry are taught what the Church teaches on Marriage

based on Canon Law Canons; 1055 Can 1165. It is also at this time

that the African Cultural ceremonies are taught and celebrated. We

have what we call Okwanjula whereby the future wife has to

traditionally and culturally present her future husband to her family.

This is accompanied by the exchange of gifts and also the exchange of

consent is made publically in the presence of both families of thespouses and also the local community.


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(c)The Post-matrimonial on-going formation: This is a course

prepared by both the Diocesan and parish Team for the Marriage

Apostolate. It is an on-going cateslatial Programme on marriage and it

promotes the peoples understanding of the sacrament of marriage.

4. MARRIAGE BANNS

According to Canon Law (Can: 1067), the Bishop conference is to lay down

norms concerning the publications of marriage banns or other appropriate

means of enquiring to be carried out as a pre-requisite for marriage. When

the Parish Priest has carefully observed these norms, he may proceed to

assist at a marriage. According to pastoral tradition in the Archdiocese of

Kampala, these weeks before the celebration of the marriage on 3

consecutive Sundays, the marriage banns are announced in Church in the

Parish where the marriage is to be celebrated or in the Parish which either

of the contracting spouses has a domicile or a quasi domicile or a

months residence of in a Parish in which the spouses are actually residing.

Time and Place where Marriage is Celebrated

According to Can 1115, it is recommended that marriage has to be

celebrated in a Parish church where one of the two spouses resides.

However the ordinary or the Parish Priest may give permission for marriage

to be celebrated elsewhere.

5. CHALLENGES IN MARRIAGE

The biggest challenge of the Family to-day in Africa is extreme poverty

which underlines all other challenges e.g. the crisis of faith, H.I.V/AIDs

and other killer diseases, same sex unions

6. THE IMPACT OF POVERTY ON THE FAMILY TODAY

i. People have lost trust in the One True God whom we preach thus resort

to looking for other gods who are propagated by witch doctors in each

village under the impression that the causes of poverty are being

addressed. This has increased African Traditional Religions were people

are just lies!

- People do not askWHYam I poor?but WHO is responsible of

my being poor?The answer is always erroneous because wheneverone asks Who?then the answer is always a person (this causes


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Family division and distraction) but when one asks Why? then

you address the real causes!

- Child sacrifice also results from the erroneous questions!

ii.

School dropouts due to lack of school fees

o Thus No future for the family and Church at large

o Child labour

o Prostitution

iii. Human trafficking; in such for employment opportunities (people are

promised high paying jobsin western countries only to reach there

and they are turned into prostitutes!)

iv. Promotion of Homosexual practices since they are well funded

v. High levels of unemployment resulting from;

o Corruption

o Fraud

vi. Drug abuse - Drinking to kill stress

vii.

Selling off of ones property, mainly Land, thisleads to Homelessnessand extreme poverty

7. THE CHURCH S PASTORAL CARE FOR FAMILIES FACING

POVERTY

a) WEKEMBE Programme that addresses Jesus message of John 10:10

I have come so that they may have Life in its fullness

b)

Prayer Centers, e.g Bukalango, Kiwamirembe etc. These centers touchpeoples anxieties and address poverty through prayer.

c) New Evangelization strategy; we are teaching people how to;

o Know their Faith and environment with Humility

o Live the Faith with Simplicity

o Share the Faith with Love

d) We have developed a new concept of the Uganda Martyrs multi-

purpose Centres wherever possible to address the 3 major areas ofpoverty from which people suffer.


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Cfr.UMU research between Nabusanke and Busega Round about.

A research was carried out on 3 basic concerns;

i. How many Catholic Churches are along the KampalaMasaka

Road with particular reference to Nabusanke and Busega Round-

about.

The number of the Anglican Churches build along the same

road

The number of Mosques build along the same road

The number of African Tradition shrines in the same area

ii. Who visits the African Tradition shrines?

iii. Why they visit the said shrines? To address 3 basic peoples

concerns Poverty eradication

Health challenges

Ancestral worship

The systematic, viable and researched responses to the said challenge

Challenge Responses

1. Poverty

eradication

To initiate at each Sub-Parish Programmes that

alleviate poverty e.g Wekembe MicroCredit,Savings and Credit Co-operatives, Tree Planting,Catering Services etc.To promote commercial farming under the Central

Archdiocesan Provincial Caritas (CAPCA) and promotecoffee commercial production under the KATUKADevelopment Trust.

To promote school bursaries under the SolidarityAction Appeal Fund (SAAFU)To promote small and medium enterprises

Train people development programs e.g Commercialand Substance farmingPromote the culture of savingsPromote Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies

(SACCOS)

2. HealthProblems

To construct some Health Facilities at each Sub-ParishChurch where people can be treated of the killerdiseases after due examination especially malAria,

Diabetes, High blood pressure etc.


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8. CONCLUSION

In 1994, the First Synod of Bishops for Africa discussed with authoritative

clarity the specific vocation of the church in Africa as a Family of God. A few

months later, the UN International Conference on Population andDevelopment held in Cairo forged an allegedGlobal Consensus on sexual

and reproductive health and rights, an agenda which is irremediably infected

with the perspective of the Western Sexual revolution that is affecting the

health of Families.

The aggressive implementation of the Cairo plan of action in Africa to which

the international community dedicates Billions of dollars each year, confront

the Church with pressing pastoral challenges for the Families today in some

parts of the world but especially in Africa. To better access their scope, aserious study in all our local Churches should be made to provide an overview

of the achievements of the Cairo agents in Africa.

Over the past 20 years and their strategy beyond 2014. In the face of such

deadly attacks against the family, may the Church in Africa have the courage

to fulfill its prophetic and irreplaceable mission for the good of humanity?

May all our pastoral plans in Africa be founded on the family and interpersonal

relationships taking into account the traditional family values in Africa whichshould shine as a lamp to make the splendor of the truth about our eternal

vocation to the family shine in the darkness of this world. St. Pope John Paul

II in his letter to the Families of February 2 1994 Familiaris Consortio

said thathuman beings have the vocation to love which introduces

them as male and female into the realm of the great mystery. This

great Mystery is Gods Trinitarian Love!

As the Church is about to celebrate and deliberate on the family in the Synod

of Bishops on the family next month in October 2014, let the Family be

dedicated to the eradication of both the spiritual and material poverty via

promoting

a)Spiritual programmes;

- Preaching Gospel of the Family where we learn to live with others

- To Relate GodsPlan on the Family

- See to it that the faithful know the Biblical and the magisterial teaching

on the Family


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- See to it that programmes in all our parishes should be organised to

teach people about Natural law, natural Family planning as taught by

the church and the relevant vocation of each person in Christ

- Make sure that the faithful get educated on the sacramental practices of

the Family and the promotion of a mentality open to the gift of life

- Finally Christian initiation should make sure that parents find space in

their daily programme of transmitting faith to their Children. The

following Family rules are a guide for the on-going formation of the

Family. They are;

1.Always be honest Proverbs 12:22

2.Count your blessings Psalms 34: 1- 3

3.Bear each others burdens Galatians 6:2

4.

Forgive and forget Micah 7:185.Be kind and tender hearted Ephesians 4:32

6.Comfort one another 1 Thes. 4:18

7.Keep your promises Rom 4:21

8.Be supportive of one another Acts 20:35

9.Be true to each other Rev. 15:3

10.Look after each other Deut. 15:11

11.Treat each other like you treat your friends Mat.

7:1212.But most important: Love One another deeply from

the heart (Peter 1:22; 1 Cor. 13:1- 13)

b) Promote all our Parishes, Schools and Sub-Parishes as the

Uganda Martyrs Multi-purpose Centres; to address the critical

issue of Poverty alleviation. The said multi-purpose centres will

inculturate and evangelize ancestral worship via promoting our

ancestors in faith that is the Uganda Martyrs. The said Centres similar

to the African Tradition Religions shall also handle health issues and the

extreme poverty that is being experienced in many families by

promoting business enterprises, micro-credit schemes and also savings

and credit co-operatives.

May the holy Family of Nazareth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary intercede for us

all, Amen.

+Cyprian Kizito Lwanga

ARCHBISHOP OF KAMPALA

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En - Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga - Rebuilding Hope and Solidarity in Today's Families