UGANDA EXPECTS POPE FRANCIS FOR 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARTYRS’ CANONIZATION
(Posted 22nd January 2014)
Details are emerging that Pope Francis will indeed visit Uganda, as several of his predecessors have done over the past decades, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the canonization of the Ugandan martyrs in October this year. Pope Paul VI on 18th October 1964 officially raised the status of 22 Ugandan martyrs to sainthood and subsequently a shrine was build in Namugongo, outside the capital Kampala, where every year on 03rd of June Catholics from Uganda, the region, the continent and well beyond gather for a memorial mass.
Records show that 45 Christians were murdered at the time for defying orders of a king gone mad to renounce their faith, many of them burned alive, and while only the Catholic martyrs were elevated to sainthood, the Anglican victims too are remembered on Martyrs Day in Uganda.
Uganda’s tourism industry will no doubt welcome the prospect of having Pope Francis come to Uganda as his presence will bring probably thousands of additional visitors to Uganda for the event, which the Uganda Tourism Board promotes annually as religious / pilgrimage tourism.
In view of this positive development for Uganda, wannabe visitors over that period of time are advised to book their tours to the Pearl of Africa as early as possible to be sure of accommodation and other services, which from middle to late October will no doubt be in great demand. Details about licensed tour and safari operators can be found via the Association of Uganda Tour Operators website at www.auto.or.ug while general information about Uganda is available via the UTB website www.visituganda.com and via www.ugandawildlife.org, the official site of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
