Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga has dismissed reports that he requested for sh9 billion from the government to prepare for the second visit of Pope Francis in Uganda.
He said any statement linking him to such a request is defamatory.
Reports say that the Archbishop asked the government to release Shs9b for urgent remedial works at Uganda Martyrs Shrine Namugongo ahead of Pope Francis’s expected second visit to Uganda.
According to Daily Monitor, the prelate in a letter dated January 16 to Finance minister Matia Kasaija, noted that the money is required for completion of priests’ house and “immediate works necessary to make Namugongo Shrine fully functional and religiously fit to host the Secam celebrations”
The cash, he wrote, should be wired to the bank account of Kampala Archdiocese, the would-be ecclesiastical jurisdiction to host the Pope.
However, Dr Lwanga says he cannot request money from the central government and the Catholic community in the country when the Pope’s visit hasn’t been confirmed.
Dr Lwanga was speaking at Kigungu landing site on Sunday, during celebrations to mark 140 years since the first missionaries Amans Delamas and Lourdel Simeone Mapeera introduced the Catholic faith in Uganda. The two missionaries are said to have come into the country on February 17, 1879.
The Archbishop also decried the increasing crime rate in the country and wondered why people still failed to be their brother’s keeper, even after the introduction of the faith in the country.
The celebrations of the two missionaries; Amans and Lourdel have been ongoing for the past 40 years.
However, Catholics in Kalangala object that the two missionaries first docked in Bugoma, Kalangala on February 14, 1879, where they constructed their first Church before reaching Kigungu.
Archbishop Lwanga says that there has been a tremendous contribution of the Catholic Church in the education and Health sectors in the country, since the coming of missionaries.
