Fort Portal Diocese will be leading this year’s Martyrs celebrations at the Catholic shrine while Greater Ankole diocese will lead the celebrations at the Anglican shrine after years of silence in the Ugandan’s holy place. Thousands of pilgrims have already started arriving in Ugandan and in Namugongo in specific for the Friday 3rd June event, Police however has warned pilgrims to be vigilant and has ordered all its territorial commanders to ensure safety of all pilgrims as beehive of activities happen during this event and criminals take chances to commit crime too.
“We urge the pilgrims to carry warm clothing, a few basic items, identification documents, mobile phones, and carry light bags; some of them carry loads as if they are shifting, carry something light so that their energy is not wasted on heavy luggage,” Police Mouthpiece Fred Enanga warned.
“They also have to ensure that they restrict pilgrims under the cover of darkness since it’s risky and identify those who cannot endure the journey so that they are given medical attention. So far we have closely monitored the movement of pilgrims from Lira Diocese, and we ex-pect more teams from West Nile, Masaka, Fort Portal, Mbarara, Soroti, Mbale,”he said.
Mr Enanga tasked pilgrims to carry warm clothing, light luggage, and identity cards.
Fort Portal Catholic Diocese yesterday flagged off over 700 pilgrims who are expected to spend 10 days trekking to Namugongo for this year’s Annual Martyrs Day Celebration. The Pilgrims were flagged off by the diocesan Bishop Robert Muhiirwa at Virika Cathedral in Fort Portal Tourism City.
Earlier on this year Uganda Episcopal Conference (UEC) chose Fort Portal Diocese to animate this year’s celebrations at the Catholic martyrs ‘shrine in Namugongo to pay homage to the 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican Christian devotees who succumbed to persecution for their beliefs. They were executed for their faith on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda between 1885 and 1887.
The Campusa will give every snippet about the events from all corners of the two most celebrated Martyrs Shrines that neighbors each other.
