By CAROLE BRESLIN
The Catholic Church in Africa has experienced unprecedented growth in the past century. In 1900, shortly after the martyrdom of Charles Lwanga and companions, there were two million Catholics in Africa. When Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa in 2009, the Catholic population was 158 million. Once again the Church has witnessed that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.
Around 1860 Charles Lwanga was born to a Musaze father and a Merne mother in the Kingdom of Buganda in southern Uganda. At the time, few Westerners had bothered with the landlocked country in central Africa bordering Lake Victoria. Likewise, the Ugandans have been historically hostile to foreigners.
It wasn’t long before the French and English came to colonize and convert the Ugandans. In 1878 the first Catholic mission was founded, Victoria of Nyanza, by Charles Cardinal Lavigerie. The mission became a vicariate on May 31, 1883.
In the meantime, Charles went to Buddu where his uncle, Kaddu, would raise him. Charles, like Kaddu, had lighter chestnut-colored skin. In August 1978 Charles joined the service of Mawulugungu, the chief of Kirwanyi who was known by H.M. Stanley, the British explorer renowned for saying, “Dr. Livingston, I presume.”
When the chief was transferred to SSingo County, Lwanga went with the retinue. On a visit to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, Charles was exposed to and attracted by the Catholic faith. He began to learn more about Christ and His teachings.
When the king of Uganda, Mutesa, died in 1884, his son Mwanga came to power and before long demanded that the Christians renounce their faith. The persecution began in 1885.
In 1884 Charles entered the royal service and was placed under the guidance of Joseph Mukasa, the head of the pages who was also a Catholic lay catechist. Under his direction, Charles learned the faith quickly.
He supported Joseph in opposing the immoral advances that Mwanga made to both of them, as well as to the pages of the court.
Because Joseph Mukasa refused to be a part of homosexual acts, Mwanga sentenced him to death. On the night of his execution in 1885, Joseph acceded to the request of Charles to be baptized.
Charles became the next majordomo in charge of all the pages. Because of his height and his physical abilities, he excelled at the popular court sport of wrestling. His purity of heart, his athletic ability, and his charm won the loyalty of the pages.
However, Charles earned the wrath of Mwanga because he resisted the king’s advances. Furthermore, he convinced the pages to follow his example and resist as well.
Because Charles and the pages were Catholic and adhered to their chastity, they were thrown into prison and then burned to death on June 3, 1886.
Among his companions were Noe Mawaggali, another lay catechist, St. Jean Marie Muzeyi, and Matthias Mulumba Kalemba, an assistant to a provincial judge. Mulumba was born in Bunya County in eastern Uganda. He and his mother were captured by Ganda raiders who sold them as slaves.
Fortunately, they were purchased by a kind family who later gave them their freedom. Mulumba, like Charles, was tall and light colored and also advanced in social standing. On May 31, 1880, he became a Catholic catechumen, releasing many of the women he owned and keeping only Kikuvwa as his wife.
On May 28, 1882, Mulumba was baptized; the priest who baptized him said he was now “the slave of Jesus Christ.” Mulumba then performed the most humble tasks, building houses, carrying heavy loads, gardening, and quietly enduring the heavy blows from soldiers.
When he later moved to Mityana, 47 miles from the capital, he helped establish a Catholic mission with Noe Mawaggali and Luke Banabakinto. They all served as lay catechists with a Catholic community of 200 by 1886.
In February 1886, Mulumba Kalemba was called back to the capital to help rebuild the king’s palace which had burned down. But the king’s resentment of both the foreigners and the Christians, both Anglican and Catholic, grew, and he sought to get rid of them.
Mulumba was arrested on May 26, 1886 and sentenced to death for being a Christian. As he and his companions were walking to Manugongo for their execution, Mulumba asked to be killed at Old Kampala. He was tortured and left for dead. His body had been so mangled that when he was discovered in the woods, the men fled in fear at the sight of him. He died a lingering death saying only, “My God! My God!” on May 30, 1886.
Charles Lwanga and his 21 companions were beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. On October 18, 1964, Pope Paul VI canonized the 22 martyrs. When he visited Uganda he said that their death heralded the “dawn of a new age.”
He further explained, “It shows us clearly that a new people needs a moral foundation, needs new spiritual customs firmly planted, and to be handed down to posterity. . . . This crime also reveals that a simple and rough way of life . . . must give way to a more civilized life wherein the higher expressions of the mind and better social conditions prevail.”
Four years later when he issued Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI would condemn contraception in part for leading to unnatural physical acts such as abortion and homosexuality.
Charles Lwanga is the patron saint of African Youth of Catholic Action.
The year following the canonization of these African martyrs, the construction of a basilica at Namugongo, Kira, in central Uganda on the site of their execution was begun. It was completed in 1968.
In 1927 the Brothers of St. Charles Lwanga was founded. It is an indigenous religious congregation of Ugandan men committed to educating the youth of their country. They consecrate their lives to service of the poor, mainly by education.
They have 21 primary schools with 18,900 students; 7 high schools with 5,600 students; 10 vocational schools with 3,000 students; 2 orphanages with 1,800 children. For more information on this order, refer to www.bannakaroli.org.
Dear St. Charles and companions, look and see that today our world is suffering the same attack that you suffered in Uganda. With strong faith and love of God you resisted the work of the Devil. You not only spread the teachings of Christ but you lived them as well, making the supreme witness by giving your lives. Obtain for us, we pray, the same graces you received in resisting evil and spreading the Truth. Amen.
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(Carole Breslin home-schooled her four daughters and served as treasurer of the Michigan Catholic Home Educators for eight years. For over ten years, she was national coordinator for the Marian Catechists, founded by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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