CONGRATULATIONS UPON OUR PLATINUM JUBILEE

Dear Parishioners of Our Lady and St. Jude Naggulu; 

Allow me to welcome you all to this great day in which we are celebrating 70 years of our existence as a Parish. May the good Lord be praised!

I wish to congratulate our Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Joseph Mary Bbuye, our Curate Rev. Fr. Viatory Muvunyi, and also welcome as well as thank Rev. Fr. Kasule, who has been with us this whole month.  I would also like to use this opportunity to thank all the visiting Priests who celebrate masses with our Parishioners on Sundays, especially the 12:00 Noon Mass, the 1:30 pm Mass, and sometimes the 5:00 pm. charismatic Mass; namely: Rev Fr. Michael Abok, Rev. Fr. Camillus Chandini,  Rev. Fr. Peter Debo ,  Rev. Fr. Godfrey Guma, Rev. Fr. Angulia and Rev. Fr. Onzima.

I would also like to congratulate the New Parish leadership of which I am privileged to be one, the 18 members of the Executive Committee, and all the leaders in the Basic Christian Communities. Let us all thank God for this opportunity and pray for the Holy Spirit to enable us to ably serve the people of God and the Parish of Naggulu.

Special thanks to our former Ssabakristu Mrs. Margaret Sheila Matovu who led Naggulu Parish for over 13 years, to her Committee Members for their dedicated service and commitment towards the growth and development of our Parish and the Parishioners both spiritually and physically.

As a maturing Parish, I wish on behalf of the Parishioners, to wholeheartedly appreciate and thank our fore-runner Priests and Leaders, beginning with Rev. Fr. Henry Steegmans, the many Parish Priests some of whom were Monsignors namely: Monsignor Kanyi, and Monsignor Kamya (R.I.P).  They were pragmatic in spreading the devotion of St. Jude and established the many physical developments we currently enjoy. These Priests and Monsignors formed the foundation of the Parish on which we currently stand. Many of them have gone on ahead to be with the Lord. May we continue to pray for and remember them too.

On behalf of the Parishioners of Naggulu, I extend our profound appreciation to the Archbishop and Ordinary of Kampala Archdiocese, His Grace Paul Semwogerere, for his continuous support and guidance in matters of the general development of our Parish, as was done by his predecessor Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga (RIP) and His Eminence Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala.  As our Leaders, their approval and guidance meant a great deal towards the success of many of the innovations proposed by the Parish Council and indeed The Our Lady and St Jude CITY concept which gave birth to the NEW CHURCH PROJECT FOR THE NAGGULU SHRINE.  

When the Old Church was demolished 2 years ago (in April 2022) and the foundation of the new Church was being excavated, there were emotions of happiness and fear, and it could have been compared to that time when the children of Israel had left Egypt. Happiness because it was like we were going into a new Church which we could only see a picture of and its artistic impressions, and at the same time fear because it was not physically there and we had inadequate funds to build expeditiously and complete the new church. Then there was COVID which has also taken its’ toll on us. However, as St. Paul has always encouraged us and told us not to fear, we all then poured out all that we had in our hearts and aspirations to God and prayed through St. Jude. 

We then looked at how to marshal our resources, called on Devotees, family both home and abroad, and have so far made progress with the construction and finished Phase 1 through to Phase 2, and have now initiated Phase 3. We thank God that we have made it this far.  The Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Joseph Bbuye, the Chairman of the Building Committee, the team of Engineers, the Building and Fundraising Committees are acknowledged for their resourcefulness and drive.   An update on the progress has been put in a report by the Chairman of the Building Committee. All the other committees are also herein appreciated; the Finance Committee, the Fundraising Committee and the Prayer Committees. Thank you all for your individual initiatives.

Our Parish is composed of 8 Small Basic Christian Communities namely   St. Antony, St. Balikudembe, St. Charles Lwanga. St. Gonzaga Gonza, St. Kizito, St. Jude Nakawa Market, St. Ponsiano and St. Paul. Each of these Small Basic Christian Communities (BCC) are appreciated for the extra efforts they have put in to support the construction of the New Shrine. Fundraising initiatives have been made at the family level, especially in each phase, and the Tofali (brick) “harambe”.  These garnered a lot of funds from ‘Bubondos’. (SBCC’s).  The Parish Executive has visited all 8 ‘Bubondos’ (SBCC’s) and each has made contributions towards the Church Construction, this was in addition to the Christmas and Easter collections. We thank you all for these collections.  We equally appreciate those who have made donations but preferred to remain anonymous.

The fundraising drive towards the church construction has enabled us to draw in a number of segmented teams; i.e. the Professionals, Business Community, the Parliamentarians, the Teachers, Medical Doctors and Practitioners, Lawyers, Engineers and Accountants among others. All these groups donated generously, especially during the Novena. An initiative to fundraise in the different Masses also yielded considerable funds namely; the Daily 6.30 am, the 7:00am, and the  1:00 pm masses while not forgetting the positive response to this campaign too from  the GANAL,  Mbarara Ecclesiastical,Tororo Ecclesiastical and Kampala Ecclesiastical Provinces which have all made formidable contributions, we thank YOU  all. To the specific church groups like Catholic Women’s Guild and Men’s Guild, the Choirs, and the Youth; God bless you all for your individual efforts.

The Chief guests and Special guests who were the main fundraisers on assigned dates, beginning with the Honorable Ministers and Governmental officials, your contributions gave us a big push towards completing our task. Some Parishioners celebrated their Birthdays in the spirit of Church Development by raising funds which our Parish Priest also did; the funds generated enabled us make great progress in our Church Construction.   We are confident that St. Jude, the intercessor of difficult cases, will not abandon us.

We are proud to have a strong team of St. Jude Devotees, who lead in their respective dioceses in the collection of funds and also recognize and appreciate the contribution of all our Priests who have served in this Parish namely: Rev Fr. Godfrey Kyeyune (RIP) who was our Parish Priest as we were preparing to start construction, some of our leaders and brothers and sisters who have departed but were so dedicated to the Church construction and pray for their eternal repose. We pray for Mr. F. X  Kitaka (R.I.P)  who was Chairman of the Development Committee, Mr. Euzebio Katorogo (R.I.P) a former Ssbakristu and many other Parishioners who are no longer with us.  May God grant them eternal rest as we ask that they pray for us too and ask God to give us the grace to complete our Church as soon as possible.

May I use this occasion to thank the Governing Council, and the governmental officials who have answered our call for financial support and also acknowledge our neighboring Parishes especially Ntinda, St. Charles Lwanga, and continue to call on them not to tire of supporting us.

We assure our main Celebrant that in our 70 years of existence, we have also steadily grown in faith as depicted in the statistics represented. We have continued to register a growing number of Baptism of infants (24,624) with over 130 children baptized on Boxing Day in 2023. Many children have also been studying for their first Holy Communion, Confirmation, and Final Commitment. We have one of our sons from Naggulu ordained a Priest Rev Fr. Boniface Ochola and another is now in the Major Seminary of Alokolum in Gulu – Seminarian Denis Odiya.  We are glad that during this Platinum Jubilee celebration, we have 3 couples who have chosen to be joined in Holy matrimony and shall continue to strive for Salvation through our individual and continued service to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

HAPPY PLATINUM JUBILEO

Rt. Hon (Dr.) Margaret Nantongo Zziwa Babu

Ssabakristu , Our Lady and St. Jude Church, Naggulu.             

Sun 30, Jun 2024 04:06 am