Odama in London
The pending visit of His Grace John Baptist Odama to London where he will co-celebrate a Service with Bishop Alan Hopes of Westminster Diocese on 8th August 2009 has raised a lot of interest in the Uganda community and beyond. More so as the Archbishop has been key in the struggle for a peaceful settlement of the Northern Uganda conflict. He has done this with other religious and traditional leaders who are part of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI).The Archdiocese of Gulu is in Northern Uganda and covers the Catholic dioceses of Lira, Nebbi and Arua, a region that has been plagued by armed violence over the last 20 years.

However, the main purpose of the Archbishop's visit is to honour an invitation by the little known and recently formed Blessed Daudi Okello and Jildo Irwa Catholic Community in the UK. This organisation was formed by a handful of humble Ugandans to pray for the canonisation of the two Martyrs after whom the organisation has been named, and also to use the example of these two martyrs as an inspiration in guiding the spiritual as well as material lives of its members.

Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa are recognized and honored in the Catholic Church as Blessed. They were the first fruits of the spreading of the Gospel by the Comboni Missionaries in Northern Uganda. People who opposed Christianity took advantage of socio-political unrest to stop the preaching of the Gospel in a place called Paimol. The two catechists were hounded, threatened, ordered to give up their activities, and finally speared to death. It was the week end of 18th - 20th October 1918.

Daudi and Jildo were beatified (and given the title "Blessed") by His Holiness Pope John Paul II on October 20th, 2002, in a ceremony witnessed by many of us from the UK and from the Archdiocese of Gulu and from Uganda as a whole.

As the preparation for the visit of Archbishop Odama hots up, so has the pressure on the organisers, with some wondering whether, a young and previously unknown community group can pull the visit off. With the immense inspiration they have drawn from the lives of Daudi and Jildo I believe that they can.

The Camberwell Fire

Yesterday as I sat watching a rather disaapointing (Murray lost!)men's tennis semi finals, the whether was hot so I had the door open. I was irritated both by a acrid smell that the wind kept on blowing into the room and also the noise of a helicopter that persistently hovered outside. I wasn't to know that 10 minutes walk away a fire was raging in a block of flats. The immensity of the tragedy only dawned on me later when I learnt on the news that 6 people, two adults and two children lost their lives. It was even brought much nearer home when this morning in Church, Father Tom announced that some of the dead were our local Parishoners. May the Almighty rest the soul of all those who lost their lives in Eternal Peace.