Journey
The successors of Bishop Comboni as Vicar Apostolic of Khartoum were Mgr. Francis Sogaro (1882-1894); Mgr. Anthony Roveggio (1894-1902) and Mgr. Francis Xavier Geyer (1903-1922). Mgr. Roveggio applied for permission to enter Uganda in 1900 but Entebbe refused. Mgr. Geyer applied to enter Uganda through the north. Permission was given in 1906. Due to lack of personnel and money it was only in 1910 that he was able to start his journey to Uganda.
THE JOURNEY
The Comboni Missionaries reached Gondokoro, where a mission had first been established in 1848, although there was nothing left either of it or of the nearby mission station of Holy Cross, where Comboni had lived for a short time. But the three missionaries were overjoyed to find their first Ugandan Catholics, some Baganda porters, working in the area. As soon as they heard the new arrivals were Catholic priests, they asked to receive the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. Their religious fervour impressed the missionaries deeply and enhanced their eagerness to enter Uganda and their hopes for the success of their expedition.
They proceeded, by donkey and on foot for Nimule, with 60 porters, and reached it on 2nd February 1910. It was an exhausting journey, travelling across hills and swamps and through forests. In spite of the documents they carried which gave them permission not only to enter Uganda, but also to settle (as long as the location was south of Parallel 3 degrees 30’North and near a Government Centre) the British Officers at the border were reluctant to let them enter to settle.
This reluctance was based on a number of factors: the climate was considered unsuitable for non-Africans; there were too few Catholics in the area, in their opinion, to justify a permanent mission; they regarded the people as too primitive to receive the missionaries and their message of the gospel; they foresaw great difficulty in ensuring the safety of the missionaries.
Bishop Geyer realized that such arguments reflected the personal opinion of one particular officer who was in fact, new to the place. The bishop therefore requested he (to) contact Entebbe for confirmation of the permits. This took four long days but by means of the newly installed telegraph lines, the visas came through in the first telegram to use this line. Of great encouragement to the missionaries – and officers – was the arrival of a tourist expedition led by the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. In the presence of the British Officers, he manifested great enthusiasm for Catholic missions and their contribution to the development of Africa, something he had witnessed in his journeys throughout the Continent.
