Part One | Part Two
rom July 24th to August 9th, I had the opportunity to be in Uganda for the Pan African Council as well as the World Council of the Young Christian Student Movement, an international movement of students and young workers, started in the 1920’s by Father, later Cardinal, Joseph Cardijn of Belgium. I had been the National Chaplain of YCS in Sierra Leone for 8 years. I also “coached” the sole remaining YCS group in the Western Suburb of Chicago, Oak Park, from the days when YCS was strong in the US and centered in Chicago from 1940 to 1986. I accompanied three members of that YCS group to Kampala.
I arrived in Kampala a few days before the first of the two meetings so that I could acclimatize and get prepared for the input that I had been asked to give at the Pan African Meeting. I stayed at a facility for diocesan priests in Kampala, a center for ongoing formation for priests of the whole country. I met some wonderful and faith-filled Ugandan priests there. The retired bishop, Robert Gay of Canada, a Missionary of Africa Community Member, had founded this center. There are over 1,000 diocesan Ugandan priests in the 19 dioceses of Uganda. I found the local priests committed, engaged and I am happy to say that the church is in good hands.
YCS in Uganda has many units. I was told that there are over 66,000 high school and university students who are part of the YCS movement in Uganda alone. When the 19 country delegates for the Pan African meeting shared their movements, in well over half of them the numbers and enthusiasm was high. The other countries were struggling with the ebb and flow of the movement… Student movements grow or decrease like waves in the ocean, a lot depending on the availability and support of chaplains (and Bishops).
If the delegates from these 19 countries are any indication of the quality of Christian leadership that is out there, I was impressed. As usual, they were very “engaging” in their debates and discussions…. As an American, I would say we lost a lot of time over details and procedures, but as anyone with experience in Africa would know, well, it is the way of having everybody being heard… democracy at its best, and worst!!? But in typical YCS style, the chaplain helped the group reflect on the experience of these debates to see that it was not so much “what” was concluded as the “process” of getting there that taught respect, patience, listening skills and care for the thoughts of others. Even if we did not always “get there” it didn’t matter because it was the “getting to” there that was important.
In typical YCS style, the chaplain helped the group reflect on the experience of these debates to see that it was not so much “what” was concluded as the “process” of getting there that taught respect, patience, listening skills and care for the thoughts of others.
As any large gathering, it was a real challenge to pull it together. As much as the Pan African Team tried, circumstances and events challenged the “planned” process for the meetings. BUT in spite of that I was amazed at how, in its own spontaneous way, the themes for the study days, the liturgies, the homilies, the experience itself, linked together one after the other as if it were planned… There was “someone” executing the process from above (or where-ever) but not in the staff room. Isn’t that they way it always is?
We visited Namungongo, the shrine where St. Charles Lwanga is buried. The other Ugandan Martyrs were burned in that local, but their tombs are unknown. It was a sacred and blessed place. The devotion of the Ugandans there was amazing. The Martyrs of Uganda are a defining and identifying element in Christianity. Every Bishop and priest who came to pray with us at the two meetings grounded their welcome and sharing in the lives and sacrifice of these men over 100 years ago.
(From Xaverian News)