Today marks the 50th anniversary of Uganda’s independence from the U.K.

Why do I know this?

This weekend, our parish was visited by Msgr. John Baptist Ssebayigga from St. Kizito’s parish in Uganda, which is one of our sister parishes. He gave a lovely homily at all the the Masses, reminding and calling us to support each other, not just materially, but in prayer. It may be difficult to remember a people so far away. They may become abstract, remote. Having him visit us makes them present to us and reinvigorates us to our commitment. As, I’m sure, the stories that he will return with will reinvigorate his parish in their support of us.

According to Wikipedia, Christians make up the majority of the Ugandan population, with the majority of Christians being Catholics. St. Kizito Parish is named after St. Kizito, the youngest (at 13 years) of the Martyrs of Uganda — burned alive in 1886.

One of the goals that Msgr. shared with us for St. Kizito’s is the construction of a youth center, so that the kids have a safe place to go, and a new parish house, so that they can house more priests to serve the large Catholic population.

To emphasize the things that we have in common, he noted that while we have the Great Lakes, they have the Great Lake: Lake Victoria, which is the second largest freshwater lake in the world — second only to our Lake Superior. 🙂