WE MUST END THE OWINORISATION AND MERCHANDISING OF JUNE MARTYRS DAY IN UGANDA - isherugaba@gmail.com

‘ …we come to Namugongo, not as tourists, but as pilgrims’…, summarizes it all. This is the message of His Eminence Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala, one of the religious leaders to greet us in the 2017 Martyrs Day souvenir magazine.  The month of June holds a special position on the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, not only in Uganda but worldwide. The few times 3^rd June has found me outside Uganda,  I have noticed it is a feast day celebrated with high Mass, beyond the standard commemoration of feast days and solemnities. And of the few times I have celebrated it at Namugongo Martyrs Shrine; I have had the experience of and witnessed the various worlds on 3^rd June in the larger Namugongo area. From the serenity and holiness of the altar zone on the lake, the power-exuding VVIP pavilions, the hustle and bustle of pilgrims, to the voyeux-infested peripheries of drinking, eating, hawking and all that goes along. And it gets worse by the year. 2017 reached the tipping point. And it can’t get any worse. It must stop. It is high time we restored this place to the holiness that genuine pilgrims come seeking. Yes, holiness. This is what the tone of a frustrated Congolese pilgrim expressed as she shoved aside hawkers of trinkets and herbal tea, on the verandah of the Basilica, while the gospel of the day was being read.       ‘ ….où est la sainteté de cet endroit…?she yelled as one hawker shoved trinkets in her face, urging her to buy. 

The holiness, the sanctity of this place that made her walk from Congo to Uganda was being desecrated by these hawkers; to who even the reading of the gospel meant nothing. As we say back home, to them the gospel was what a coin is to a dog!  

Pilgrims must return home spiritually nourished and renewed. And the buck begins and ends with the leadership of the Catholic Church in Uganda. In the interim of an ultimate solution, the following administrative and operational measures will be a reprieve to genuine pilgrims.

On 3^rd June, the entire neighborhood within a radius of 3 km from the shrine be declared pilgrimage zone, with no activity, save the normal life of residents within the demarcated zone. The only commercial activity allowed will be the shops within the gazetted zone. No food vending of any kind. No drinks. Each pilgrim carries a litre of water.  Owinorisation and hawking must be banned.  Religious souvenirs and articles can be sold from the respective grottoes of the martyrs. Relatedly, all corporate advertising on holy ground must be banned. We expect banners of the Marytrs Story in various international languages spread across the gazetted pilgrimage zone. And talking of corporate advertising leads us to the financing of Martyrs Day. Corporates come in because we seek their support, thus the quid-pro-quo, as we do it in the world of marketing: maximum visibility for each coin spent. In the case of Martyrs Day though, this turns the holy ground into a trade exhibition. 

The souvenir magazine isn’t spared either: adverts occupy 80% of the space! All is this avoidable if we take the financing as a national duty: we draw the budget annually and finance it over 12 months from contributions across all dioceses. The animating diocese only does the planning, coordination and execution.  Else, as Pope Francis noted when he visited us, Namugongo may soon become a museum, not the holy place of pilgrimage that it should be.