Pilgrims at Namugongo line up for holy water
Unlike in the previous years, the number of pilgrims who undertook the walk of faith from the greater Masaka region to the Uganda Martyrs shrines in Namugongo, Wakiso district to participate in the annual supplication has been low.
The disparity is manifesting in the low numbers of foot pilgrims who endured the long journeys to Namugongo and those who traveled by vehicle to pray at the Anglican and Catholic shrines. For instance, records at Masaka Catholic Diocese show that only 783-foot pilgrims set off for the 140kilometer journey on Sunday morning.
This is way below the 1273-foot pilgrims that the diocese registered in 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19. Similarly, only 48-foot pilgrims from the Anglican Diocese of West Buganda participated in the walk to Namugongo for this year’s martyrs’ day celebrations. The two dioceses share common geographical boundaries.
Valencia Nakachwa, one of the Catholic faithful from Ssaza Parish in Masaka city, says that she failed to fulfill her annual routine walk to Namugongo but delegated one of their family members who participated in the walk and eventually intercede for the entire family through the Martyrs.
Nakachwa has participated in the walk of faith for the last twenty years. Besides the high demanding family responsibilities, Nakachwa says that her poor health condition could not enable her complete the long trek with ease as she could before.
She explains that the high cost of living has also taken a heavy toll on many families that are struggling for their daily survival, arguing that leaving for the pilgrimage would mean starving the families for days.
Mary Namutebi, another regular foot pilgrim from Masaka who didn’t make it this time, says besides the current economic hardship, the prolonged lockdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic could have led to a slump in people’s devotion and subsequent decline in faith.
Richard Ssemwanga, one of the Catholic laities in Kyotera district who participated in the trek to the Martyrs shrines in Namugongo told Uganda Radio Network that several of their colleagues stayed back and instead asked him to pray for them through the Uganda Martyrs.
He revealed that he has with him at least 30 written prayer requests of different Christians who pleaded with him to place them on the prayer altar at the Uganda Martyrs shrines in Namugongo.
Reverend Sister Margret Nabukenya, one of the coordinators of the foot pilgrims in Masaka Diocese, observes that they have also taken note of the decline in the numbers and will make strategic interventions to revive the enthusiasm among the laity.
According to Sister Nabukenya, besides the soaring cost of living, some of the faithful may be dealing with spiritual challenges that the Church can attend to.
The journey to Namugongo and subsequent events are in remembrance of the suffering and death of 45 Christian converts who paid the ultimate price for defending their newly-found faith on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda.
The converts were put to death between 1885 and 1887.
–URN
