The Bishop of the Diocese of Kasese, Rt. Rev. Francis Aquirinus Kibira Kambale has urged Christians to utilize the Advent season in fight against works of the darkness if they were to receive Christ holistically.
In his Homily while presiding over Holy Mass at Kakone Primary School in which he administered the sacrament of Confirmation and a mini-fundraising for the purchase of a DT motorcycle for the Parish, Bishop Kibira said Advent is the best season for Christians to prepare against works of Satan that include, drug abuse, alcoholism, hatred, theft and fornication among others but rather live as trusted witnesses of the Good news.
Bishop Kibira who also asked Christians of Uganda Martyrs Kakone Parish to make good use of their ten years as a Parish that was opened on 25th Nov 2012 by the then Ordinary of the Diocese of Kasese, Rt. Rev. Egidio Nkaijanabwo, Fr. Job Syathamira as the first Parish Priest and Fr. Godfrey Kauta as his Curate.
The Kakone Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Cosmas Baluku who argued Christians against witchcraft and hypocrisy, said more than 7000 Christians had been baptized, more than 400 couples wedded in ten years as a parish.
The State National guidance, Hon. Godfrey Kabyanga who was the chief Guest commended the ordinary of Kasese for various developments in the Diocese, including the recently completed multi-billion Centenary bank building and the ongoing construction of Mt. St. Mary’s Hospital he said he fully supports.
He also asked Bishop Kibira not to listen to the Abakubi bapulani but keep focused in doing what he thinks is good for the people of God.
Over six million shillings was raised during the fundraising.
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News update 28th November 2022
H.E Museveni urged religious leaders to emulate their Master
President Yoweri Museveni has urged religious leaders to emulate Christ who used the pulpit to fish souls and build the communities he lived in.
President Museveni who was represented by the Minister of state for National guidance, Hon. Godfrey Kabyanga asked the Church leaders at the commissioning of Grace Healing center Pentecostal church in Kasese Municipality to emulate Christ who prayed, fasted and preached but earned a living as a carpenter.
Museveni who contributed twenty million shillings, said in addition to spiritual nourishment from, Church leaders should popularize income generating projects to sustain their households.
Bishop, John Bahebwa of Grace healing center, hailed president Museveni for honoring the invitation but called for the promotion of ecumenism in Rwenzori region.
Hon. Ferigo Kambale, the Kasese Municipal MP asked government expedite the process of constructing Rukoki Health center four maternity Ward that caught fire.
END.
BISHOP FRANCIS AQUIRINUS KIBIRA RETURNS FROM KENYA’S CAPITAL CITY-NAIROBI
His Lordship, Rt.Rev.Kibira has been attending a training of board of directors of Centenary bank and Centenary group, concerning governors, Management and strategy. Bishop Kibira on centenary….
15th to 21th October 2018
World Catholic News
1.Rite of Canonization of 7 Blesseds, presided at by Pope Fraancis, 14.10.2018
At 10.15, on 15th October 2018, 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, on the parvis of Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father Francis celebrated Holy Mass and presided at the rite of canonization of the Blesseds: Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) (1897-1978), Supreme Pontiff; Óscar Arnulfo Romero Galdámez (1917-1980), archbishop of San Salvador, martyr; Francesco Spinelli (1853-1913), diocesan priest, founder of the Institute of the Sisters Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament; Vincenzo Romano (1751-1831) diocesan priest; Maria Katharina Kasper (1820-1898), virgin, founder of the Institute of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ; Nazaria Ignazia of Saint Teresa of Jesus (1889-1943), virgin, founder of the Congregation of the Misioneras Cruzadas de la Iglesia; Nunzio Sulprizio (1817-1836), layperson.
The following is the homily pronounced by the Pope after the proclamation of the Gospel:
Homily of the Holy Father
The second reading tells us that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb 4:12). It really is: God’s word is not merely a set of truths or an edifying spiritual account; no – it is a living word that touches our lives, that transforms our lives. There, Jesus in person, the living Word of God, speaks to our hearts.
The Gospel, in particular, invites us to an encounter with the Lord, after the example of the “man” who “ran up to him” (cf. Mk 10:17). We can recognize ourselves in that man, whose name the text does not give, as if to suggest that he could represent each one of us. He asks Jesus how “to inherit eternal life” (v. 17). He is seeking life without end, life in its fullness: who of us would not want this? Yet we notice that he asks for it as an inheritance, as a good to be obtained, to be won by his own efforts. In fact, in order to possess this good, he has observed the commandments from his youth and to achieve this he is prepared to follow others; and so he asks: “What must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus’s answer catches him off guard. The Lord looks upon him and loves him (cf. v. 21). Jesus changes the perspective: from commandments observed in order to obtain a reward, to a free and total love. That man was speaking in terms of supply and demand, Jesus proposes to him a story of love. He asks him to pass from the observance of laws to the gift of self, from doing for oneself to being with God. And the Lord suggests to the man a life that cuts to the quick: “Sell what you have and give to the poor…and come, follow me” (v. 21). To you, too, Jesus says: “Come, follow me!” Come: do not stand still, because it is not enough not to do evil in order to be with Jesus. Follow me: do not walk behind Jesus only when you want to, but seek Him out every day; do not be content to keep the commandments, to give a little alms and say a few prayers: find in Him the God who always loves you; seek in Jesus the God Who is the meaning of your life, the God Who gives you the strength to give of yourself.
Again Jesus says: “Sell what you have and give to the poor.” The Lord does not discuss theories of poverty and wealth, but goes directly to life. He asks you to leave behind what weighs down your heart, to empty yourself of goods in order to make room for Him, the only good. We cannot truly follow Jesus when we are laden down with things. Because if our hearts are crowded with goods, there will not be room for the Lord, Who will become just one thing among the others. For this reason, wealth is dangerous and – says Jesus – even makes one’s salvation difficult. Not because God is stern, no! The problem is on our part: our having too much, our wanting too much suffocates us, suffocates our hearts and makes us incapable of loving. Therefore, Saint Paul writes that “the love of money is the root of all evils” (1 Tim 6:10). We see this where money is at the centre, there is no room for God nor for man.
Jesus is radical. He gives all and He asks all: He gives a love that is total and asks for an undivided heart. Even today He gives Himself to us as the living bread; can we give Him crumbs in exchange? We cannot respond to Him, Who made himself our servant even going to the cross for us, only by observing some of the commandments. We cannot give Him, Who offers us eternal life, some odd moment of time. Jesus is not content with a “percentage of love”: we cannot love Him twenty or fifty or sixty percent. It is either all or nothing.
Dear brothers and sisters, our heart is like a magnet: it lets itself be attracted by love, but it can cling to one master only and it must choose: either it will love God or it will love the world’s treasure (cf. Mt 6:24); either it will live for love or it will live for itself (cf. Mk 8:35). Let us ask ourselves where we are in our story of love with God. Do we content ourselves with a few commandments or do we follow Jesus as lovers, really prepared to leave behind something for Him? Jesus asks each of us and all of us as the Church journeying forward: are we a Church that only preaches good commandments or a Church that is a spouse, that launches herself forward in love for her Lord? Do we truly follow Him or do we revert to the ways of the world, like that man in the Gospel? In a word, is Jesus enough for us or do we look for many worldly securities? Let us ask for the grace always to leave things behind for love of the Lord: to leave behind wealth, leave behind the yearning for status and power, leave behind structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel, those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world. Without a leap forward in love, our life and our Church become sick from “complacency and self-indulgence” (Evangelii Gaudium, 95): we find joy in some fleeting pleasure, we close ourselves off in useless gossip, we settle into the monotony of a Christian life without momentum, where a little narcissism covers over the sadness of remaining unfulfilled.
This is how it was for the man, who – the Gospel tells us – “went away sorrowful” (v. 22). He was tied down to regulations of the law and to his many possessions; he had not given over his heart. Even though he had encountered Jesus and received his loving gaze, the man went away sad. Sadness is the proof of unfulfilled love, the sign of a lukewarm heart. On the other hand, a heart unburdened by possessions, that freely loves the Lord, always spreads joy, that joy for which there is so much need today. Pope Saint Paul VI wrote: “It is indeed in the midst of their distress that our fellow men need to know joy, to hear its song” (Gaudete in Domino, I). Today Jesus invites us to return to the source of joy, which is the encounter with Him, the courageous choice to risk everything to follow Him, the satisfaction of leaving something behind in order to embrace His way. The saints have travelled this path.
Paul VI did too, after the example of the Apostle whose name he took. Like him, Paul VI spent his life for Christ’s Gospel, crossing new boundaries and becoming its witness in proclamation and in dialogue, a prophet of a Church turned outwards, looking to those far away and taking care of the poor. Even in the midst of tiredness and misunderstanding, Paul VI bore witness in a passionate way to the beauty and the joy of following Christ totally. Today he still urges us, together with the Council whose wise helmsman he was, to live our common vocation: the universal call to holiness. Not to half measures, but to holiness. It is wonderful that together with him and the other new saints today, there is Archbishop Romero, who left the security of the world, even his own safety, in order to give his life according to the Gospel, close to the poor and to his people, with a heart drawn to Jesus and his brothers and sisters. We can say the same about Francesco Spinelli, Vincenzo Romano, Maria Katharina Kasper, Nazaria Ignazia of Saint Teresa of Jesus, and also our Abruzzese-Neapolitan young man, Nunzio Sulprizio: the saintly, courageous, humble young man who encountered Jesus in his suffering, in silence and in the offering of himself. All these saints, in different contexts, put today’s word into practice in their lives, without lukewarmness, without calculation, with the passion to risk everything and to leave it all behind. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord help us to imitate their example.
2. Pope at Mass: watch out against friendly, “well-mannered demons”
Pope Francis celebrated Mass Friday morning at the Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican, saying that when the devil cannot destroy head on with vices, wars or injustices, he does so subtly with guiles, gradually leading people into the spirit of the world, making them feel nothing is wrong.
He was sharing his reflection on the day’s Gospel reading where Jesus drives out a demon who returns with other more wicked spirits to take possession of his old home.
- Holy See Press Office Communiqué: Audience with the President of the Republic of Chile, 13.10.2018
On 13th October in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father received in audience the President of the Republic of Chile, H.E. Mr. Sebastián Piñera Echenique, who subsequently met with His Eminence Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by His Excellency Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.
During the cordial discussions, satisfaction was expressed for the existing good relations between the Holy See and Chile. The Parties then went on to consider the situation of the country, with particular reference to the defence of life and the painful scourge of abuse of minors, reiterating the effort of all in collaboration to combat and prevent the perpetration of such crimes and their concealment.
Attention then turned to matters of common interest at international and regional level, with special reference to the reception of migrants.
- Message of the Holy Father to young people participating in “WYD Mada 9” in Mahajanga, Madagascar, 14.10.2018
The following is the text of the Video Message sent by the Holy Father Francis has sent to young participants in the WYD Mada 9, held in Mahajanga, Madagascar, from 8 to 14 October 2018, on the theme: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God”:
5. Egypt sentences 17 to death for Coptic Christian church attacks
Seventeen people have been sentenced to death by an Egyptian military court over their involvement in bomb attacks on Coptic Christian churches.
A further 19 people were handed life jail terms over the attacks, which took place in 2016 and 2017, state news agency Mena reported on Thursday.
The Islamic State (IS) group said its militants were behind the suicide bombings that killed dozens of people.
Amnesty International described the death sentences as “grossly unfair”.
“There is no doubt that the perpetrators of these horrific attacks should be held accountable for their crimes,” Amnesty said in a statement on Thursday.
“But handing out a mass death sentence after an unfair military trial is not justice and will not deter further sectarian attacks,” it added.
The human rights group said that those accused of carrying out the church attacks in Egypt should be “retried in a civilian court in proceedings that comply with international human rights law”.