Archbishop Lwanga will be the third prelate to be buried in Lubaga Cathedral
He was a human rights and political freedoms advocate
He loved and promoted the Kabakaship and Ganda culture
Government today accord the late outspoken Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga a state funeral at the Kololo Independence grounds , according to ICT and NG Minister Judith Nabakooba. President Yoweri Museveni will preside over the event.
Government also condoled with the family of Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga and the catholic church community following his sudden death on Saturday morning.
“As we mourn, let us be strengthened in Easter promise of Jesus’s triumph over death and suffering. Let Archbishop’s contribution to his country and mankind be a living memory to all of us. May his Soul Rest in Peace,” Nabakooba said in a statement .
Lwanga’s last public appearance was on Friday at Namirembe Cathedral where he led the Way of the Cross as the chairperson of the Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC).
Dr Lwanga succumbed to heart attack according to a Postmortem report released by the church yesterday .The cause of death,the report says, was ischemic heart disease following Coronary artery thrombosis.
“This means a heart attack that is due to a blood clot that was found inside the artery that supplies blood to the heart,” the report read by Dr. Andrew Ssekitoleko one of his personal doctors stated .
The Late Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga will be buried inside Lubaga Cathedral, according to the interim administrator, Msgr . Charles Kasibante, making him the third cleric to be buried there.
Bishop Edouard Michaud, a Canadian Clergyman who was one of the priest missionaries known as White Fathers was the first to be buried inside Lubaga cathedral. He was the vicar Apostolic of Uganda from 1933 until his death in 1945.
The second was Dr Joseph Kiwanuka- the first native African to be ordained as a Catholic bishop in modern-day times. He died in 1966-five years after his appointment as Archbishop of Lubaga.
The two were buried on the right-wing of the church just behind the area reserved for the choir. Msgr Kasibante says Archbishop Lwanga will on Thursday be laid in the middle of the two of his ‘fore grandfathers
Msgr Gerald Kalumba, one of the senior priests in the archdiocese and former vicar general, notes that it is has been a tradition of the church to bury (Arch) bishops in the cathedrals they served.
“It is the tradition and in many times bishops who served in a particular cathedral deserve being buried in there,” says Msgr Kalumba.
He, however, adds that this might vary depending on other circumstances; “In some cases, if the (Arch) bishop left a Will indicating a place where they wish to be buried, their Will is honored,” he added citing the example of Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga who ‘humbled’ himself by making a Will to be buried at the Bakateyamba Home which he founded.
Born in January 1953, Dr Lwanga was appointed as Archbishop of Kampala on August 19, 2006 and was installed as the third Archbishop of Kampala on September 30, 2006 at Rubaga Cathedral, succeeding Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala, who retired .
Archbishop Lwanga in the last presidential elections strongly criticized government for narrowing the space for political freedoms and called for the strict observance of human rights by state agencies while policing elections .
He is been a firm believer in the institution of the Kabakaship and promoter of the Ganda culture.
