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| Charles Lwanga and Companions |
The martyrs of Uganda were beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. In 1964 they were canonized by Pope Paul VI. on and June 3, has since been the Memorial of St. Charles Lwanga and his Companions.
The visit to Namugongo occupies a central place for the visit to Uganda. There the Pope will celebrate his only public Mass in this East African country.
The Martyrdom of Charles Lwanga and Companions for Their Faith and Chastity
The visit is not without its explosiveness. Uganda has been widely criticized in the recent past because of the very different paths it took in matters of homosexuality, abortion, contraception and AIDS, than the West with its customary abortion and contraceptive mentality. The events in Namugongo have to do with homosexuality, and thus with AIDS and prevention, and are therefore of particular relevance. But hardly anyone knows that in Europe.
To learn why Charles Lwanga and the other Christians found such a cruel death, you have to read the Roman martyrology. Charles Lwanga came, like his companions, from the Bagandian nobility. The young noble sons were part of the entourage of the king, whom they served. The King of Buganda was then Mwanga II. While Charles Lwanga and other young nobles were baptized and followed Christ the King with great zeal his ear was lent in contrast to the Islamic emissaries trying push back the growing Christian influence by the persecution of Christians, of Catholics and Anglicans.
Polygamy, Homosexuality and Islam
The reasons were not only political (influence by British, German and Arab, Anglicans, Catholics and Muslims), but also moral. The Roman martyrology speaks of the "obscene demands" of the king. This refers to homosexual desires of the then 20th Kabaka (king). These desires were rejected by Christians at his court. Mwanga II. put them to death for it.
The highlight of this persecution was on June 3, the burning of Charles Lwanga and twelve companions in Namugongo, where a church was built in their memory. The Muslim advisor at the king's court had fewer problems with the way of life of the king. This was officially mainly for polygamy, who paid homage to the Kabaka of Buganda. The Christian understanding of marital monogamy was a serious cultural break with political implications. Due to the numerous women of Kabaka the various tribes of Baganda had share in the kingship. Polygamy was the matriarchal element of the unwritten constitution that secured kingship of all the tribes on a rotating basis. Islam, which permits polygamy, came to meet these political needs. This was also unofficially more congenial for the tyrannical King's homosexual desires, who desired to demonstrate his power in the sense of the sexual domination of men and women.
The Kabaka was overthrown later, was baptized Anglican, and returned with the British to power, but was soon overthrown again in a joint action by the British and tribal superiors and died in 1903 in British exile in the Seychelles.
At the 117th anniversary of the Martyrdom the CDF Took a Position in 2003 on Homsexuality
It was no accident that the CDF, with the signature of its then prefect Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, precisely on June 3, 2003, published the document "Considerations Regarding Proposals of Legal Recognition for Unions Between Homosexual Persons." It was a document on an issue that is one of the most controversial of our time. On this subject, the Catholic Church was exposed to massive external, but also internal pressure.
In the "Considerations" the CDF states initially on marriage:"The Church teaches that Christian marriage is an effective sign of the covenant between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph. 5:32). This Christian meaning of marriage, far from diminishing the profoundly human value of the marital union of man and woman, confirms and strengthens it (cf. Mt from 19:3-12. Mk 10:6-9). "
And then about homosexual relationships:
"There are absolutely no grounds to establish analogies between homosexual unions and God's plan over marriage and the family, not even in a broader sense. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. [...] They are not to be approved in any case.
Homosexual relationships are condemned in Scripture as a serious depravity ... (cf. Rom 1:24- 27;. 1 Cor 6,10; 1 Tim 1:10). This judgment of Scripture does not allow the conclusion that all those who suffer from this anomaly are personally responsible, but testifies that homosexual acts are not in themselves in order. This moral judgment is found in many Christian writers of the first centuries, and was unanimously accepted by Catholic Tradition. "
Homosexual acts "Cry Out to in Heaven for Vengeance"
Homosexual relationships are among the four deadly sins or sins "outrageous", as the Catechism of Pope John Paul II. Is, or sins "crying out to heaven for vengeance", as it says in the Catechism of St. Pius X.
Today there are in the Catholic Church, at least that of the so-called West, a tendency to simply suppress this part of Catholic doctrine. The one part is no longer talks about it and thus escapes further criticism from without the church further and homosexuals. Another part adopts the position of the secular world and the homosexuals. Parallel to this is homosexuality, including its branches, of pedophilia and ephebophilia, which have become an internal problem of the Church.
Ambiguous Signals from Pope Francis on Homosexuality
Pope Francis has so far sent out mixed signals in terms of homosexuality. On the one hand he severely criticized the gender theory several times. On April 15, 2015, he wondered at the general audience "whether the so-called gender theory is not an expression of frustration and resignation, which aims at the eradication of sexual difference, because they no longer understand, to confront it. We risk here, to take a step backwards. The displacement of the differences is the problem, not the solution." Earlier this year, said the Pope in Manila of "a new ideological colonization, the attempt to destroy the family." Specifically, he criticized the international institutions that bind financial loans for States for the introduction of "gay marriage".
On the other hand, he also made the famous-infamous phrase of his pontificate: "Who am I to judge?" It's a sentence that has been widely abused by homosexual and homophilic circles to justify homosexuality and the legalization of "gay rights". Although this use of the sentence has not escaped the Vatican, it has not been corrected by Pope Francis. At least not in a sufficiently understandable and clarifying extent because the abuse continues.
Homosexual organizations introduce King Mwanga II. as an example that homosexuality also belongs "to Africa". The example of martyrdom for the purity of Charles Lwanga and his companions was an important factor in the successful fight against AIDS by the Ugandan government. To the western contraceptive mentality, the government opposed in collaboration with the Christian churches chastity and continence. In the late 1980s nearly 30 percent of the population were infected with HIV, while their number fell in 2004 to 6 percent. The successful method is liked neither by the UN population experts nor the abortion lobby or the Western media, which is why very little was known internationally about the "miracle on Lake Victoria" in the fight against AIDS.
No Place is More Appropriate than Namugongo to Speak a Word of Clarification on Homosexuality
No site would be more appropriate than Namugongo with the grave of Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, who suffered martyrdom because of the defense of their chastity, to speak a word of clarification on homosexuality and to raise his voice for the whole world to hear. It's a subject that should be made a "priority" of world politics in circles external to the Church. Above all, it would be the appropriate place to correct that controversial sentence that weighs on this pontificate and on the whole Church since the return flight from Rio de Janeiro in late July 2013: "Who am I to judge?"
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Settimo Cielo / Wikicommons
Image: Settimo Cielo / Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
AMDG
