Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga to be buried near Rubaga cathedral

The Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga will be buried on Thursday near Rubaga Cathedral, the Nile Post has learnt.

According to a tentative program released by Catholic Church, the official mourning for the deceased will start on Monday with a mass at 10am at Rubaga cathedral.

This will be without the body.

“On Tuesday the body will leave Mulago mortuary straight to his ancestral home at Kyabakadde along Gayaza road. There will be a mass at 10am and the body will stay overnight,” the program reads in part.

On Wednesday, Archbishop Lwanga’s body will arrive at Rubaga Cathedral and followed by a mass at 10am and later public viewing in front of the cathedral.

“Burial will take place on Thursday with a mass starting at 10am at the metropolitan burial grounds besides Rubaga cathedral,” the tentative program forwarded to the Nuncial through the chairman of the Episcopal Conference says.

However, the program says that if there appears a will specifying a chance in the burial grounds, Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga’s burial place will be changed accordingly.

Archbishop Lwanga who a day before, on Friday was part of the religious leaders to lead the way of the cross at Namirembe cathedral was on Saturday morning found dead in his room.

The Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Dr Samuel Steven Kaziimba Mugalu who spent the most part of Friday with Lwanga said he was shocked by the sudden death of the man of God.

“Just yesterday, we walked on the way of the cross together and it(death) is a shock to all of us. His clear gospel voice of advocacy for the poor and oppressed, his commitment to Christian unity and justice for all will be dearly missed,”Kaziimba said.

President Museveni on Saturday mourned Lwanga as one who died in faith.

“I join the Catholic Church, all religious faithful, and the country in mourning Archbishop Lwanga. He has died in faith. May God grant his soul eternal repose,” Museveni said.

Biography

Born in 1953, at Kyabakadde Village, in Naggalama Parish, in Mukono district, Lwanga attended Kyabakadde primary school before joining Nyenga Seminary in 1964.

Between 1972 and 1974, he studied at Katigondo National Major Seminary, in the present-day Kalungu District.

He then studied Theology at Ggaba National Seminary, in Kampala and in 1979, he joined the University of Clermont-Ferrandin France, were he studied administration and languages, with particular emphasis on administration.

Later, he studied at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, wherein 1994, he earned a doctorate inCanon Law.

He was ordained a priest on 8 April 1978 atRubaga Cathedralby CardinalEmmanuel Kiwanuka Nsubuga.

He served as a priest of Kampala Archdiocese until 30 November 1996.

Lwanga was appointed the first Bishop of the Kasana-Luweero Diocese in 1996.

In 2006, he was appointed the third Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kampalato succeed Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala who resigned.