Lwanga will be Buried inside Rubaga Church

Lwanga and Apostolic Nuncio Blumes (internet photo)

Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga who died last Saturday will be laid to rest inside Rubaga Cathedral Church.

This has been announced by Kampala archdiocesan interim administrator, Msgr. Charles Kasibante.

Dr Lwanga becomes the third prelate to be buried inside Rubaga Cathedral after the first prelate Bishop Edouard Michaud, a Canadian Clergyman who was one of the priest missionaries known as White Fathers.

He was the vicar Apostolic of Uganda from 1933 until he died in 1945.

The second priest whose remains were lowed inside the Cathedral is Dr Joseph Kiwanuka, the first native African to be ordained a Catholic bishop in modern times who died in 1966 five years after his appointment as Archbishop of Rubaga.

Joseph and Edouard were buried on the right-wing of the church just behind the area reserved for the choir.

Msgr Kasibante said Archbishop Lwanga will on Thursday be laid in the middle of the two of his ‘fore grandfathers’.

Msgr Gerald Kalumba, one of the senior priests in the archdiocese and former vicar general, notes that it is has been a tradition of the church to bury (Arch)bishops in the cathedrals they served.

“It is the tradition and in many times bishops who served in that particular cathedral are worthy of being buried in there,” says Msgr Kalumba.

He, however, adds that this might vary depending on other circumstances. “In some cases, if the (Arch)bishop left a Will indicating a place where he wishes to be buried, his Will is honored,” he added citing the example of Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga who ‘humbled’ himself by making a Will to be buried at the Bakateyamba Home which he founded.

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