Simon Cox Blog: African Pilgrims Pour into Uganda for Martyrs Day

Friday, 3 June 2016

African Pilgrims Pour into Uganda for Martyrs Day

President wants Protestants to replicate the tourism success of Catholics.

Today tens of thousands of Christians in Uganda will dip themselves and their children into a lake where executioners reportedly washed off the blood of dozens of martyrs.

It’s an annual ritual to remember 45 Catholics and Anglicans who were killed by sword or fire by Ugandan king Mwanga between 1885 and 1887. (A Ugandan film released May 30 retells the story.)

Twenty-two of the martyrs were Catholic. Those men were beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920 and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Their shrine in Namugongo can seat 1,000 and has been visited by three popes, including Pope Francis.

Last year, 500 Catholic pilgrims from Kenya spent more than a month walking 300 miles to reach it for the annual Martyrs Day. The June 3 observance draws millions of pilgrims across East Africa.

The other 23 martyrs were Anglican. While there is also a shrine to the Protestant martyrs, it’s nothing like its Catholic counterpart.

In fact, the Protestant presence is so small that originally Uganda president Yoweri Museveni said he thought there were only Catholic martyrs. He criticized Anglicans for not popularizing their martyrs more, and told them to follow the example of the Catholics.

“Mobilization and promotion is something that you need to work on. I am sorry, but you do not bring it out very well,” he told Anglican clergy last June 3. “I want you to be international. Where I have been (Catholic shrine), it is more exciting and I used three languages because they made theirs international.”

As CT reported last fall, the Anglicans are working on it, and one day the swampy site symbolizing religious freedom may prove better than gorillas for Uganda’s economy.

The Church of Uganda has expanded its small ...