DR JOSEPH. KIWANUKA : A MAN OF VERY EMINENT QUALITIES
By Dr G. H. Kkolokolo (Paris-France)
In his very brilliant writings, Rev Fr Yves Tourigny, former Archivist of Kampala Archdiocese, once talked about Archbishop Dr Kiwanuka’s death and said that it pained the nation so much that it almost appeared that the whole country went into mourning and that but his funeral was more of a triumph, the triumph of a humble and a courageous life which had won the admiration of all those who knew him!
In general this observation smartly introduces us to that Dr Kiwanuka who, because of his very many countless excellent qualities, rose in profile from a mere boy from his native Nnakirebe village to become one of the greatest churchmen Christianity has ever produced and one of the most notable figures Africa has ever known!
This ascetic and intellectual Archbishop, who was indeed an inspiration to all SMACKists, was a man of very many rare qualities and that’s why he was popular both at home and abroad and was unanimously respected all over Africa. Let’s now look at those extraordinary qualities that made him a legend all over the world.
Dr Kiwanuka was a man of determination, resolution, decision, and had a strong will and a real backbone ! He was a no-nonsense person who at the same time was such an intrepid individual who never hesitated to call a spade a spade ! And he never feared to speak his mind to anybody. That’s why he was always a conqueror, winning battle after battle ! And he was reported to be uncompromising on a principle. That’s why many would even say that he was a tough bishop! Yes, he had always been a tough mind since childhood.
At Mitala Maria where he did his Primary School and was always the best student in class, it is said that one day some people, maybe acting as a rebellious group, did succeed in secretly seducing altar boys from serving the daily morning Mass, but in spite of all threats and insults uttered at him, young Joseph Kiwanuka remained strongly loyal to the priests and refused to be enticed by what he considered to be a very cheap nonsense! And he won the admiration of his superiors ! At his aunt’s where he used to stay, it is said that one day some of his cousins, inspired by a local custom from the neighbours, adopted the habit of marking with ash a special sign on the face of the first person to fall asleep at bed-time. Young Kiwanuka reported this matter to his aunt and in addition went to a nearby bush, cut some reeds and built a fence around his bed so that nobody could disturb his vey much needed sleep!
He applied this indomitable strong will that enabled him to do marvels to his keen sense of labour and hardwork. Dr Kiwanuka was known for his deep attachment to duty and work. Even at the sunset of his life the serious-minded prelate still continued to labour hardest despite his poor health ! Through all this he had to get to envision a number of great things. For example when he was still bishop of Masaka, he lost his most esteemed secretary and he had to do everything alone without a secretary! This was one of the things which Providence put before him to be the motive of implementing firmly and resolutely the idea of sending many seminarians, religious and priests abroad for further studies. And the results are there to testify!
And on the other hand he succeeded to instill that sense of duty in his clergy and in his diocesans. All over Masaka region there was a saying :“ Kiwanuka yali tannajja twabanga mu kunuusa bugolo na kunywa mwenge okutuusa lweyatukwatamu netuyiga okukola! ”(Prior to Kiwanuka’s era our routine was chiefly axed on pinching snuff and on drinking sordidly until he boldly awakened us to the realities of duty, labour and hard work!)
And even as a simple priest, Dr Kiwanuka would found projects whereby people could participate in self-help schemes as applied to the means available in their midst. In one well-known parish he actively participated in teaching people how to improve on and enrich their homestead with items made out of clay, reeds and papyrus. And the faithful appreciated on seeing lots of tangible results! Thus he was already an inventive mind long before becoming bishop!
Dr Kiwanuka owed many things to his intellectual aptitudes which never let him down on any occasion and in any circumstance. He was always very top successful as a pupil, student, seminarian and priest. The Musizi edition of April 1966 which was in itself a complete obituary to Dr Kiwanuka pointed to his superb intelligence at seminary, right from Bukalasa Minor Seminary; the Munno edition of 15.05.1965, published on the eve of celebrations to mark Dr Kiwanuka’s Episcopal Silver Jubilee, noted that by that time in the history of Katigondo Major Seminary just only three students had succeeded to reach the marks Dr Kiwanuka left in that Seminary! And a subsequent Munno edition (March/April 1966) carried an article by Rev Fr Timoteo Ssemwogerere, his fellow student at Rome’s celebrated Angelicum University where Dr Kiwanuka had passed with flying colours his doctorate in divinity.
The article said that Dr Kiwanuka’s regular academic performance literary astonished all fellow students, leaving them in utter amazement! One can see how great a scholar this prelate was given that at that time all studies were in Latin! Anyway it is said that right from the minor seminary Dr Kiwanuka had always been very excellent in Latin. And in addition he was a very highly reputed linguist and polyglot speaking many European languages including, in addition to Latin, English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, and Greek. One day when on his visit to SMACK in 1964 he told us that he had to learn German during the six months he spent in that country, and his German was reportedly very good. Equally so was his French which the French Canadian Brothers and the French public at large would always find very original and flawless. Through these many languages, Dr Kiwanuka succeeded to establish a network assembling a real multitude of contacts all over the world and, on the other hand, he would access to many serious scholarly publications which would regularly edify his already vastly large vision.
Dr Kiwanuka was a very strictly observant person. Nothing could escape his attention and nothing would pass unattended to and he always laboured to be well informed on any issue. A person familiar with his entourage one day said that one of Dr Kiwanuka’s habitual questions whenever something passed unnoticed by any of his subordinates was : “Kino kyabayiseeko nga mulaba wa? ” (What were you doing when this issue escaped your attention? This extra prudence on part of Dr Kiwanuka was further alimented by his razor-sharp memory which never let him down until his death. At seminary, according to a well-informed source, he would commit entire pages of the Holy Scriptures to his prodigious memory. At Lourdes a White Father missionary from Burundi told me that he was one day moved to full amazement when in an all African religious conference in the Congo in 1957 he saw Dr Kiwanuka moving towards him to greet him saying : “ You are Rev Fr X, I know you very well because you were two years behind me at the White Fathers’ Generalate at Maison-Carrée, Algeria in 1932!
And another White Father from Mbarara told us in Paris that he was surprised one day to hear Dr Kiwanuka calling him with his exact two names when he had only been briefly introduced to him at a ceremony several years back! Even my late father would regularly tell us the very same thing about Dr Kiwanuka whom he knew right straight away in 1933 when he had just returned to Uganda after his studies in Rome and after becoming a White Father. This quality, together with his reputed spirituality, would later serve to make him a living prophet!
He could foretell the future in politics, in developmental projects and in Church matters. Whatever he did would later confirm him correct and to the point! Some of us remember an episode when he abolished the system of having all school fees in minor seminaries paid by the Archdiocese. Many said that the move would end by discouraging parents from sending children to seminary ! Now, dozens of years later, we see seminaries filled to full capacity by young aspirants sent in and catered for by their parents / relatives!
Yes, Dr Kiwanuka had a very profound spirituality as portrayed regularly by his piety, simple humble ways, asceticism and a prayerful mind. One important source said that he would confess every week ! At Lourdes, where he was one day requested by the Pope to co-consecrate the vast underground Basilica in 1958, he was once seen spending a whole full day praying in that Basilica without going out for meals ! Another source said that on some occasions he would miss hearing a knock at his door because he was mystically absorbed in ecstasies of prayer and spiritual recollection! And he was such a time-table minded person that on occasions he would leave table in the middle of a meal for work after looking at his watch! And punctuality was very essential in his mind. Scheduled to arrive in a parish at 11 a.m.,for example, his car would already be seen secretly parked somewhere in a nearby locality by 10 a.m.and the bishop busy inside reading his breviary and other publications while waiting to drive off at an opportune moment, and by five to ten minutes to time, he’s already at the parish, and in time!
Added to all this, was his legendary charisma! He was a magnet who could pull vast crowds everywhere. In many African countries, wherever he went, he was seen as a special being anybody would be anxious to see ! In Europe or even in America, Canada,etc.. wherever he was people always wanted him to stay in their midst and, after his sojourn, they would be sorry that he had to go! Home in Uganda, his presence anywhere at any occasion would be in the headlines. While at SMACK we had on several occasions the opportunity to line up at Savio and cheer him whenever he returned to the country from a long trip and we would see countless numbers of vehicles following him up to Lubaga! All this charisma was springing from his very holy personality as an impeccable leader fully committed to God. He was an exemplary churchman who was universally praiseworthy. I remember an instant at Paris University when a postgraduate lady from Burundi told us that she would often hear missionaries admonishing Christians to imitate the example of Dr Kiwanuka of Uganda!! And at Lourdes, the German administrative manageress of the St Bernadette Cinema Hall who had heard a lot about Dr Kiwanuka, described him as an exemplary person full of piety!
One of the celebrated phrases pronounced by Dr Kiwanuka during one of his visits to SMACK was,
“Have a great respect of God and never be selfish in your life! ”
Dr Kiwanuka gave an entire life to the love of God and of all people. He would take to sacrifices in order to have something achieved satisfactorily. I remember my father telling us that one day at a remote place where he had been appointed Medical Assistant and Rev Père Kiwanuka was one of the priests at the nearby mission, there happened a serious incident on the mission sports-ground when during a football game after lunch one boy missed the ball and he accidentally kicked his colleague right in the abdomen! When the Fathers were informed of the incident, Père Kiwanuka came out with his motor-cycle to take the victim to the dispensary. He narrated everything to my father who tried to apply an emergency treatment to the boy, but all in vain as the situation was worsening practically every half hour.The best solution envisaged was to take him to hospital, thirty miles away! A car was necessary as the boy had to be accompanied by the medical assistant and one of his parents. The mission had no car, and the solution was to wave any vehicle passing around. Père Kiwanuka deemed it wise to stay with the group until they succeeded to get transport. At 10 p.m., after having waited patiently for six hours under a torrent of mosquitoes and chilling cold, a lorry full of cotton bales was sighted and Père Kiwanuka stopped it and kindly requested the Asian owner seated near the driver in a fully packed cabin to take his people to hospital. The Asian, fully convinced of the gravity of the situation and fearing to let down a priest, agreed to squeeze Père Kiwanuka’s people somewhere on top of the lorry.And off they went, arriving at hospital towards 1 a.m., and the almost unconscious boy was immediately taken to the surgery for operation, and everything went on very successfully, and the following day my father returned and recounted everything to Père Kiwanuka thanking him for having taken all that pain to have a life saved! A week later the boy was discharged from hospital and resumed his studies and the whole parish praised Père Kiwanuka for the special care, attention and sacrifices so fraternally extended to even a somewhat marginal individual as that mere schoolboy from virtually nowhere! And from then on Père Kiwanuka went very deep into the hearts of the faithful!
Dr Kiwanuka had his humility and this enabled him to be respectful, obedient and helpful. In spite of his great intelligence, he would always fully accommodate others’ views with respect. He would pose as a docile instrument to his superiors and even colleagues in order to ease things for them. One day he told my father that at that parish he had requested all fellow priests to leave solely to him the mission of moving out at night to administer to the sick whenever the faithful searched a priest at those odd hours! This courageous initiative always reassured both the parish and the faithful, and was very highly appreciated by his superiors!
Already famous as a very omni-perfect individual at school and in seminary, then at university in Rome, and then at the White Fathers’ Generalate at Maison-Carrée in Algiers, and then finally in parishes where he proved to be a fully committed serious-minded priest, Rome, in order to honour Africa with its first ever episcopal appointment in Modern Times, had to look to this impeccably spotless profile as embodied in the person of Dr Joseph Nnakabaale Kiwanuka, a man whom destiny would turn into the foundation stone of that wonderful transition that has enabled the Universal Church in Africa to proudly embrace and identify with a typically vibrant African culture, a man whose great visionary outlook enabled our humble local church to produce some of the continent’s most universally celebrated churchmen renowned for their full perfect integrity and intellectual aptitudes, and a man whose very many unusually excellent qualities have but put Africa on a special map coloured and contoured with glory, honour, respect and everlasting dignity!
DR. JOSEPH KIWANUKA ON HIS DEATH - BED DURING THE REQUIEM MASS AT LUBAGA CATHEDRAL
By Dr. George Kkolokolo
He is the respected patron of SMACK’s Kiwanuka House, named after him on his episcopal elevation in 1939. He was a distinguished biblical scholar,theologian,educationist,economist,sociologist
political scientist, and a notable prophet.He exercised his pastoral charges of bishop at a totally different time, that was the colonial era when he was virtually the sole African holding a post pegged to such great responsibility.His strong will coupled with his great intellectual wits and aptitudes, which had enabled him get with topmost honours SUMMA CUM LAUDE a doctorate in Divinity, enabled him to be a first class bishop always on the forefront in projecting development and edification of minds and souls.He confronted any challenge without the slightest difficulty ! His visits to SMACK enabled students to discover an intellectual of a very sharp mind and a polyglot speaking French with the Canadian Brothers, Dutch with the then chaplain, English with the general SMACK public and, on another occasion, German with an acting chaplain.SMACK so madly loved him that whenever he returned to the country from a long trip overseas all students would line up on the road at Savio to cheer him and enjoy the sight of those hundreds of cars which used to accompany him from Entebbe to Lubaga; one day, a classmate, U.S.educated late Eng. Paul Lukindu, counted 258 vehicles!
He was as popular in Uganda as he was all over the world ! And the day he died mourning was universal both in the country and all over the world where the press and all radios including the BBC and the Voice of America announced his death and gave important testimonies on him.SMACK was naturally shocked by the news of the great prelate’s death which was announced in the Chapel by the H/M Rev Bro Paul Bourget immediately before the start of the early morning prayers. And all students,dumbfounded, stayed there for the Mass. Late in the afternoon the H/M hired two buses to take the HSC students to Lubaga to pray and view the body.Makerere University, led by Prof Yusuf Lule, and Kings’ College Buddo, led by their H/M, also came in delegation to Lubaga.We were surprised by the almost saintly cult the faithful were giving to the corpse, tapping on it their rosaries, medals, pencils,etc..Two days later all secondary schools in the region assembled at Lubaga for the Requiem Mass and SMACK’s choir did the singing. And again two days later, Friday 25 February 1966, was the funeral itself and the then Kabaka’s Government had,in respect and recognition of the prelate’s tremendous world wide prestige and high achievements, proclaimed the day a public holiday set for official mourning and the Central Government allowed offices and schools around Kampala to free their personnel/students for the funeral.Entire villages and localities converged to Lubaga.The college failed to hire any transport because all buses and lorries in the region had already been booked for the burial! People were even coming from Masaka to look for buses and lorries in Kampala! The H/M requested the students to make it to Lubaga through public transport. And we made it! My group arrived at the Cathedral at noon (the Requiem Mass was at 3 p.m.), by then about half of the vast parking lot provided for buses and lorries was already full and yet hundreds of buses and lorries from all over Uganda were still to arrive! Cars were rolling in at a fantastic rate from every corner of the entire region ! By the time we entered the Cathedral (two hours before the ceremony) practically the entire half of Lubaga Hill was already filling with vehicles and by the end of the four-hour long Mass the whole hill had been covered with vehicles numbering in thousands and over-boarding to reach places like Kabuusu,Nnabunnya, Musigula,others even branching towards Wakaliga and Kabakanjagala Road!
And the numbers of mourners from all walks of life and religious denominations ! One serious source estimated the big crowds that covered the hilltop and hillsides of Lubaga to number in the region of 100,000! We, who were inside the fully packed vast Cathedral, were almost suffocating. But our very great worry was indeed our security as the frenzied hyper-hysterical squeezing and pushing crowds outside were angrily booting the doors of the sealed Cathedral and the noise was almost like that of a bomb exploding on the edifice ! At one time the door of the main central entry was broken and people panicked until the police managed the situation! Heavy door-booting went on throughout the Mass except for the 30 minutes of the very touching eulogy delivered by Bishop A. K. Ddungu both in English and Luganda, and yet in it he had told the congregation that the body will not be buried until after five years.Those outside also heard the message thanks to the powerful loudspeakers which could even be heard by those standing sixty metres away behind the Cathedral! At the end of the Mass people were also in an unusually uncontrollable commotion to see the body now moved and placed near the Uganda Martyrs’ Altar.
And the authorities, having opened two side doors to help speed the evacuation of those inside, also opened the central door to let the tens of thousands squeezed outside enter and view the body.
This went on until 1 a.m. for cars were still coming from far and wide! Then they closed the Cathedral for the following day,Saturday, which also saw streams of buses, lorries and cars bringing mourners. Idem on Sunday when thousands of other mourners arrived in endless streams of vehicles!
That was the moving heroic farewell given to one of Africa’s most respected legendary celebrities and saintly patron of SMACK’s Kiwanuka House. Radio Uganda and UTV present on scene relayed with emotion what was taking place at Lubaga. Mengo’s mouth organ, Ssekanyolya Newspaper, gave a big heading : “ABANTU KATA BAABIKE E LUBAGA! ”(Scuffle at Lubaga nears mourners to suffocation.
It’s this commotion which later obliged church authorities to transfer Archbishop Nsubuga’s consecration to Nnakivubo Stadium.Mourners who came from Europe returned home deeply dumbstruck strongly moved by the Lubaga doors which some observers place in a quasi-parallel comparison to those the French booted in 1899 during the funeral of Blessed Antoine Chevrier,a very great priest who is now on his way to canonization!
Dr Kiwanuka’s body continued to remain exposed, first, for two years, in an ordinary coffin covered with a glass on top,then, it was laid in the actual reliquary coffin, specially bought in Italy,in early 1969 on a special Sunday occasion. The BBC got the news and gave a testimony on the deceased prelate describing him as one of those Africans who had brought glory and prestige to the Black Continent ! All in all Dr Kiwanuka was viewed by millions for twenty-seven good years until the transparent reliquary was sealed to public sight in 1993 to hide, perhaps temporarily, the remains of that great ethereal churchman who was very instrumental in edifying Christianity and Africa to very top modern norms and super standards that are an honour to the image of our continent.
DOCTOR JOSEPH KIWANUKA: AFRICA'S ETERNAL LEGEND By Dr G.H. Kkolokolo
No wonder why sometimes Kiwanuka House boasts of a “saint” and a great African churchman of real international renown.I think they are right! Anyway the Kakoozas, the Mugwanyas,the Lourdels and the Mount St Thereses are equally madly proud of their very prestigious patrons to whom they extend an almost special cult! Anyway, in any case, each one of these special individuals was extremely very useful to SMACK in general and has always been part of its history.
In the last issue we noted the mad frenzy scenes that accompanied Dr Kiwanuka’s heroic funeral where casualties that could have cost dozens of lives were avoided (miraculously!). Why all this madness? Because that was the only most ostensible way for the scores of thousands that turned up for the funeral to show their gratitude and appreciation to this world-renowned cleric whose high class achievements were almost unparalleled at that time and whom many took for their real father!
What did Kiwanuka achieve ? The answer is simple : glory and renown for the church,for Africa and for Uganda.Glory and renown because of a solid multiple accomplishment of very many brilliant and classical realizations.
Think of his ever memorable advice and counsel to Rome where he was a consultant on very many issues regarding the church in Africa,especially. It is even said that one Roman institute for the training of African clergy was his brain-child just as in Uganda the Uganda Martyrs University is! Think of the very much notable calibre of extra-illustrated intelligent churchmen who passed in his hands and were literary edified by him: Cardinal Laurean Rugambwa, Cardinal E .K. Nsubuga, Cardinal E. Wamala, Bishop A. K. Ddungu, Bishop P. Kalanda and the very many priests,Brothers and Sisters, and leading church musicians like Late Kyagambiddwa. Think of the education sector with those hundreds of schools he built everywhere and promoted them to enviable high standards. His celebrated phrase to parents was: “Waakiri mwambale obuziina babasekerere naye ng’abaana bammwe bonna bali mu masomero! ” (Do even boldly demote to shame and misery for the sake of procuring education for all your children!) He encouraged promoting leadership through education and in this he was instrumental in building eminent persons like The Great Benedicto Kiwanuka, Economist Joseph Mubiru,first Governor of the Bank of Uganda and SMACK OB, and so many others.
Through his many pastoral letters he would encourage education and development axed on ethical morals and character.And he could reach all areas of his diocese to encourage people to participate in development through work and labour and to shun bad acts such as excessive drinking ,etc..
He encouraged the spirit of co-operatives as a means of uplifting overall development standards. And he also gave motion to sponsorship in education through family, clan or village co-operatives.
He set up very many projects to found a solidly wealthy Masaka region and in all this he had the efficient co-operation of his clergy and the faithful, and the luck of having coffee, Masaka’s key cash crop, well quoted on world market.
He was very strict on family issues and was determined to promote to the highest degree female education, that’s why he founded, among others, Christ the King’s College at Bulinda to give more impetus to girls’ education in Masaka.
As a specialist in politics, Dr Kiwanuka strongly insisted on marrying politics with Christian morals and humane values. And he was a determined political thinker and leader.
During the Kabaka’s exile by the British ( 1953 – 1955) the whole of Buganda had to look to Kiwanuka for guidance and for the struggle to ensure the Kabaka’s return to his kingdom. The then protectorate governor, Sir Andrew Cohen, was a very brilliant person and solidly uncompromising on the question of ever seeing Muteesa II return from exile. And the only man who could confront him on the issue was Dr Kiwanuka whose vision was reportedly smarter and more philosophical than that of the governor. It was even said that on the famous Hancock Commision, chosen to deliberate on Buganda’s post-1955 future, Dr Kiwanuka was the only person who couldn’t shy down before the governor’s tough attitude and bursts of temper, and that Dr Kiwanuka could boldly answer back without any fear! And when the British Colonial Secretary came to Uganda to oversee the proceedings of the Hancock Commission, the intrepid churchman had the guts to see him in an aside and hand him a strongly worded document which he had personally prepared asking for the immediate return of the Kabaka. And the British Minister had no alternative safe condescending to Dr Kiwanuka’s request ! And Muteesa regained his throne and returned to his kingdom because of Dr Kiwanuka! On his triumphant return from exile the Kabaka went in person to Kitovu (Masaka) to thank the formidable prelate !
At Lubaga, Dr Kiwanuka was Archbishop for only five years (1961 – 1966). These five years were full of extraordinary commitments : the Ecumenical Council in Rome (1962 -1965), the gruelingly tough preparations of items leading to the canonization of the Martyrs, for it was because of Dr Kiwanuka that the 22 Martyrs were canonized together as one group otherwise prior suggestions had proposed to first canonize Charles Lwanga,and Dr Kiwanuka was opposed to this view; then there was the question of the country’s independence and how it affected the Church in matters of transition from missionary to native clerical administration, then the question of preparing an eventual successor, and the creation of an effective master-plan for the Archdiocese. In all this Dr Kiwanuka was strongly involved as Archbishop and by the time of his death, everything had already been put on the right track and Kiwanuka died as a triumphant Archbishop!
Dr Kiwanuka’s unique position as Catholicism’s only black bishop on the whole continent for 13 years until they appointed Rugambwa of Tanzania and Bigirumwami of Rwanda, enabled him to portray his wonderful talents far and wide. He thus became a leading Black African figure of real international renown.
This was an added value to the prestige obtained right away on his appointment as bishop, news that made headlines everywhere and was diffused to the whole world by the BBC and Radio France.From then on everyone wanted to know and see Kiwanuka! After his consecration in Rome he traveled widely all over Europe. In France he was received with jubilation wherever he went. At Paris’s Sacré-Coeur Basilica he was literary mobbed by the thousands who had gathered to see him and it is said that the impact of the crowds was such that his feet couldn’t touch on the ground !
And he continued to be a celebrity and a living legend popularized in every corner of the world ! And when in 1958 Pope Pius XII delegated him to Lourdes to be one of the co-consecrators of the vast underground basilica, it is said that his presence on any spot in Lourdes would be noticed thanks to the heavy applause's from the pilgrims and tourists present and to the hundreds of beaming camera flashes that accompanied him everywhere!
Dr Kiwanuka’s triumphant popularity in life accompanied him in death. Many will never forget the famous Lubaga Cathedral doors that the hyper-hysterical mourners booted throughout the four-hour long Requiem Mass that assembled a record number of vehicles and 100,000 mourners from every region of Uganda and Eastern Africa! Vans were bringing White Fathers from Bukoba, Mwanza, etc..
An Italian missionary impressed many with his mourners from Karamoja ! And the then influential English daily, Uganda Argus, talked about the two cyclists who made it from Fort Portal! And Europe retained that door-booting which is now part of Church History! One priest in Germany showed me an article on Uganda with Dr Kiwanuka’s portrait on it, and the writing said that the great scenes of emotion that accompanied his funeral expressed a special fervour the population had for the Archbishop whose body would remain exposed in a special reliquary. And a French article by Rev Fr A. Savary, then head of France’s important Documentation Catholique news media and who traveled to Uganda to attend Dr Kiwanuka’s funeral, spoke of the commotion at the cathedral doors with the police intervening, almost in vain, to cane those responsible for the booting, and that all this solid emotion was just but an expression of that great veneration people used to extend towards Archbishop Kiwanuka. According to Fr Savary that door-booting commotion would portend in many ways the eventual triumphant success of Pope Paul VI’s historic visit to Uganda three years later (1969).
This victorious cleric is now lying peacefully in his grave in Lubaga Cathedral with people continuing to live his wonderful memory thanks to many things including the annual memorial lecture that has uncovered a lot about him.And perhaps one day, who knows, the Church may raise him to the glory of the altars, a thing many Christians even in Europe are yearning for. And we shall say to the Lord Almighty, “ Thank you, Almighty Father, for having given us St. Joseph Kiwanuka! ”
And SMACK’s Kiwanuka House will get a real boost and boast to add to its claim of being the House of Saints!
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