Kampala, Uganda
The Ugandan Government has allowed international pilgrims to attend this year’s Martyrs’ Day commemorations on 3rd June after their involvement was barred for the past two years due to COVID-19.
At a press conference held in Kampala on Wednesday, Catholic Bishop Robert Muhiirwa, vice-chairman of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, said that the Ugandan Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister’s office had given the church permission to organise the event and open it up to both local and international pilgrims without restricting the number of participants.
Clergy arrive for the 2021 Martyrs Day celebrations at the Ugandan Martyrs Catholic shrine in Namugongo. PICTURE: John Semakula.
“We have spent two years without having a big celebration because of COVID-19,” said Bishop Muhiirwa, of Fort Portal Catholic Diocese in Western Uganda. “We have been in touch with the health ministry and Prime Minister’s office and they have given us a go-ahead to celebrate because the economy has been fully opened up and the COVID-19 numbers have gone low.”
The Uganda Martyrs’ Day is celebrated annually to remember 45 young Ugandan men who, after surrendering their lives to Jesus Christ between 1885 and 1887, were killed on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga, of the Buganda Kingdom, who saw their conversion to Christianity as a threat to his reign. The men were speared to death as they sang praises to the Lord and later their bodies were burnt to ashes.
Their brutal murders helped spread Christianity in Africa and the beyond. Every year before the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of pilgrims trek hundreds of kilometres from within Uganda and beyond to join the Martyrs’ Day celebrations at the martyrs’ shrines in Namugongo Wakiso District. The large scale celebrations were suspended in 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
At the press conference this week, Patrick Birungi, the vice-chairperson of the organising committee, disclosed that the government had demanded all foreign pilgrims present negative results from COVID-19 tests taken within 48 hours before accessing the martyrs’ shrines.
“Those who will come for the pilgrimage from neighbouring countries are advised to look for travel requirements, which will include among others, negative COVID-19 PCR tests taken within the time frames as guided by the health ministry and those with vaccination certificates should also move with them,” Birungi said.
Pilgrims who typically attend the Martyrs Day include pilgrims from Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, UK and the United States.
Bishop Muhiirwa reminded pilgrims that at the venue where the celebrations are held there will be strict observance and enforcement of the COVID-19 standard operating procedures set by the Ugandan Ministry of Health. These include social distancing, washing hands with soap and wearing of face masks. The church will also deploy people to take the temperatures of pilgrims.
This year’s event will run on the theme, ‘Baptised and sent to witness Christ with love and hope’, and the Catholic Diocese of Fort Portal in Western Uganda will lead the service at the Catholic shrine. For the past two years, the Uganda Martyrs Day celebrations were broadcast on radio and TV with only a small group of clergy allowed at the shrines.
