The Catholic Church in Lugazi diocese has put down an offer made by the Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament, Betty Nambooze Bakireke of donating part of her home land for the construction of a chapel.
Nambooze said that she had agreed with her husband, Henry Bakireke to make an offer of a piece of land on which they are willing to singlehandedly construct a chapel which they would hand over to the bishop after its completion.
“God has been so good to me as a person and my entire family; therefore we thought it wise to have this as a give back to Him,” she said.
Nambooze said what she was planning to do have been done by her fellow legislators from the Muslim Religion with whom they went to parliament.
“Most of them built mosques at their homes and later handed them over to the Muslim leaders in their respective areas for management. But unlike the Muslims, for the Catholics Church, it’s upon the Christian taking his or donation to the church to go when so humble. I am therefore preparing to go to the Bishop and inform him about my donation,” the legislator said.
She made her revelation before the Bishop of Lugazi diocese, Christopher Kakooza who was in company of the Vicar General, Msgr. Richard Kayondo.
Bp. Kakooza was attending the inauguration ceremony of the 33rd parish for the diocese, St. Anthony of Padua Kasangalabi in Mukono Central Division, Mukono Municipality.
Nambooze resides at Nakabago Cell in Mukono Central Division, Mukono Municipality, which falls under the new Kasangalabi parish.
The background on the idea
During the COVID 19 lockdown, Nambooze said they had a lot of urge for the church service as the churches had taken so long without opening. She therefore approached the St. Paul Parish priest, Rev. Fr. Paul Ssebitoogo who agreed to lead them in a mass every Sunday evening at her home. The mass attracted other Christians from her neighbourhood.
“Even after the lockdown was lifted, the Father kept on serving us with the mass. It was upon that background that we wanted to make it more formal, by donating part of our land to the church and also build a reasonable chapel which will be serving us and the nearby community,” she revealed.
She added: “Some of the demands of the people in towns on the side of the church include; lunch hour services, morning and evening mass. In that reign, we have a number of schools in my locality which have numbers of Catholic pupils and students who also lack a better place to accommodate them for the mass and other church services.”
For Kasangalabi parish, Nambooze asked the parish priest and the leaders to allocate her land where she can build a Golto, as a person.
“Don’t get surprised that I am making a lot of offers before my Lord. God has also in return done a lot of wonders to me. As far as leadership is concerned, I finished counting how many terms I have spent in Parliament, do any of you here know how long I have been legislating on behalf of this constituency!” Nambooze jokingly asked the congregation.
As soon as the legislator put down the microphone, the Vicar General, Richard Kayondo stood up saying he was putting right the procedures of the Catholic Church.
“When you are a Christian, there are known procedures you are supposed to go through when making such a donation to the church. When you are after something, as Nambooze has put it, you are supposed to behave like Nicodemus; you take a slow pace going through the right straits. When you put it into the public, it becomes hazardous,” he said.
Based on Nambooze’s proposal of building a chapel, Msgr. Kayondo said: “If we agreed with the legislator to build a chapel, other Christians would also come the following day asking to build one in their homes, just because they heard the MP’s request being assented to. If you happen to refuse one of those, it creates a bad impression; therefore, when you want something from the Catholic Church, one must be humble and take the right channels.”
On the side of the Golto, Msgr. Kayondo said for any development in the diocese, be it building the church, Golto and others, it is the Bishop who builds and solely responsible.
Therefore, he said that for anyone who feels like helping the bishop on one of his responsibilities, he or she must consult him through the right channels other than ambushing him in public.
Though bishop Kakooza was present at the function, he did not respond as far as Nambooze’s requests were concerned. But as Nambooze was making her presentation, the bishop and the Vicar General kept on speaking to each other.