The Journey
Early in 1913, Fr. G Beduschil started a formal school for catechists and this was continued by Fr .Fornasi. When Bishop Geyer visited the Comboni Missionaries in Uganda, he was particularly appreciative of what had been done for and by the catechists. In 1919 a secondary school which would develop into training catechists and teachers was founded by Fr. Pietro Audisio. It became one of the best in the area much appreciated by the local people who could then enter government positions. . The plan of Fr. Audisio was to prepare full-time catechists as leaders to other catechists, capable to lead the Sunday service where the priest was not available.
The subjects taught at the school, were: Holy Scripture, moral, the beginnings of the Church History, grammar, arithmetic and Kiswahili. Another aim was to form catechists for Adult Catechesis. Side by side, the technical school grew. The brothers, especially Bro. Simone Fanti dedicated their days to teaching carpentry, mechanics, brick building and fabbro? In his report to Propaganda Fide in 1919, Mgr. Stoppani, Vicar Apostolic of Bahr el Ghazel, was happy to write that the institution of catechists had been understood and promoted in almost all the missions.
The witchdoctors blamed the presence of the white men for many adversities in their territory. It was not easy to be a catechist in such an atmosphere of suspicion. This was shown when two catechists Daudi Okello and Jildo Irwa were killed in the far East of the District at Paimol in October 1918.
In 1922, the first Congress of Catechists of Northern Uganda was held in Gulu, a major event for the Christians in the area and its success was mainly due to the faith and enthusiasm of Martino Musoke from Gulu, of Aleni from Moyo and Jakubo Kinyang from Kitgum.
The dedication and fidelity of the catechists reached the level of martyrdom in Daudi Okello and Gildo Irwa among the Acholi. They had been baptised in 1917 and volunteered to go to preach the gospel in the east of east Acholi, near Karamoja. They were warned that the place was dangerous, lawless because of the presence of Adui (Acholi who rebelled against the Protectorate Government, Abas (Islamic fundamentalists) and witchdoctors suspicious of the new Christian religion. They were killed on 17th October 1918 in Paimol giving witness to their faith in Jesus Christ by giving their lives to defend his name, just as the martyrs in the south had done years before. The sacrifice of these two for their Christian beliefs has now been recognised by the Catholic Church in which they are venerated as martyrs and have now been proclaimed saints.
In 1986, another time of great insecurity in Uganda, sixty two catechists were killed for staying with their people. Every diocese in northern Uganda now has a centre for training catechists.
In 1922, the government introduced the growing of cotton; roads were improved to Lake Victoria and to Atyak from Gulu and plants for its collection and processing.
In 1923, the area in north Uganda and South Sudan was detached from the Vicar Apostolic of Bahr el Ghazal and became the Apostolic Prefecture of the Equatorial Nile with Mgr. Antonio Vignato as Apostolic Prefect. He took up residence at Gulu on 19th June 1924.
The missionaries, always attentive to the wish of Comboni to “Save Africa with Africa”, in 1925 sent five aspirants to the priesthood to Jinja, the Mill Hill seminary: two from Kitgum, two from Gulu and one from Moyo.
The first missionaries had come on foot or on donkeys, bicycles arrived in 1912, in 1921 the first motor bike and in 1925 the first car!
Gulu soon became a “mother”. In 1927 the Congregation of Propaganda Fide in the Vatican, detached Sudan, electing a new Apostolic Prefect in Mgr. Giuseppe Zambonardi with Mgr. Pietro Simoncello with the same charge in Uganda. Soon after, in December 1929 the whole District of Karamoja was given to the Apostolic Prefecture of the Equatorial Nile as well as two thirds of the district of Lango. It had been in the care of the Mill Hill Fathers who found it difficult because of lack of personnel.
The work of the mission continued expanding. Chapels were built, catechists trained to staff them and primary schools erected in the most important places. The missionaries built a junior school on the hill near the mission. After much discussion it was decided to invite the “Brothers of the Sacred Heart” of the American Province though their Mother House was in Spain, to come to take over this school. They accepted and in 1932 the first five: Brothers Norbert, Louis, Colman, Camillus and Oswin arrived and the school was given the name St. Aloysius College.
Because of the pressing need for teachers in the village schools, Teachers’ Training Schools (Vernacular) had been offering a two year course after the first classes. The one in Gulu had been reorganized by the Verona Fathers in 1928 with students coming from all over the North to attend. The Sacred Heart Brothers took charge of this too and transferred it to Lira. To ensure a certain standard of intake for this training, students had first to follow a course at intermediate level. Thus an intermediate school was begun by the Verona Fathers in Arua, so that students from West Nile could be more easily able to join the training in Lira.
The seminary, Cathedral, Boys Primary School, the catechumenate with its dormitories, all grew on the higher ground, since the original site had been found unhealthy, infected with Sleeping Sickness.
In 1934 the “Normal” School was opened for Girls and in 1935, the Girls Catechumenate. The sisters moved into their new house in that year too.
On 10th December 1934 the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide crowned the work of the missionaries by elevating the Prefecture to Vicariate. Mgr. Angelo Negri became the first Vicar Apostolic on 25th August 1935 with residence at Gulu.
The Little Sisters OF Mary Immaculate of Gulu
The first girls who expressed a desire to be religious sisters were also pupils of the mission school in Gulu and they came from different missions in the Prefecture: Moyo, Arua, La (o)donga, Angal and Gulu. When they told the Apostolic Prefect, Mgr. Vignato of their desire to be religious he encouraged them to continue their education in Gulu in the Teachers’ Training College under the direction of Sr. Angioletta Dognini. She became the co-foundress of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Gulu with Bishop Angelo Negri.
