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1 February 2004

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Conversation: Mons Paul Ssegemogerere, vicar general of Kampala, Uganda - Helping his country tread the right path

Today – God’s gift to us all

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Conversation: Mons Paul Ssegemogerere, vicar general of Kampala, Uganda - Helping his country tread the right path

MORAL REHABILITATION: Mons Paul’s battle against corruption

By Chris Lindsay

Mons Paul Ssegemogerere, vicar general of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, is one of 21 children from his father’s two marriages. In many ways his struggle to achieve an education and lift himself to some success mirrors the difficulties facing his country – difficulties that, as vicar general, he has considerable responsibility in helping resolve.

“Six of my brothers and sisters have died, four of AIDS,” he says. “My father had 15 children with my mother, who died in 1977. He then remarried and had six more.

“I was educated in a rural area to secondary level, I did secondary school also in Uganda and then I went to the US to do theology. After that I went back to Uganda where I was ordained in 1983.”

He says his responsibility as vicar general in Kampala is to be in charge of dispensations for mixed marriages and inter-religious marriages, but more importantly to be in charge of ‘rehabilitation’ work to help overcome Uganda’s many problems.

“For many years Uganda has been having political problems,” he says. “Society needs rehabilitation after a long time of struggle and wars – rehabilitation in terms of destruction of buildings, but also moral rehabilitation.

“And, because of the scourge of AIDS, many parents have died and we need rehabilitation for the young people.

“The Church’s role in the rehabilitation of Uganda is basically the moral rehabilitation.

“The country has been corrupted by politicians, people have lost hope, they need a saviour. Many people have died in war, or of AIDS; many people see no hope.

“The Church has to come out and say that there is hope, not only by praying, but by directing people to work together to make things better. The Church has done that very well so far.

“The Church has approached the problem of corruption in the administration and politics of Uganda mainly by way of guiding and preaching.

“Corruption is so deep in Uganda. It is wherever you go, in the education system, the ministries, the police, judges, judiciary. It’s like you can’t survive without corruption.

“Everywhere you go you have to bribe someone to get something done.

“In fact, it has become so common that some policy makers are arguing that we should legalise corruption.

“The Church continues to preach against it. The majority of the people are Christians, and the officials of the government are Christians who come to church every Sunday; they listen to our homilies. We have to continue guiding them so they can give up corruption.

“Education is too expensive, salaries are low. It is only through corruption that many people can live. We are a poor nation, very very poor, but some people want to live as if they are rich people, so they use other people’s money.”

Mons Paul says the foundation of the hospital and the education system is based on the Church.

“You find the best schools in the country are Catholic, and the best hospitals are Catholic,” he says. “But the government in the 1970s took over some of the schools and made them government aided schools. That meant that the government could come in and give policies.

“Now those government aided Catholic schools are strong, but because of the lack of government they are being compromised. The government pays the staff, they appoint the headmaster, so those officers of the government will listen to the government.

“They have to follow the government curriculum, which is a good curriculum, but the Church discipline is missing.”

Mons Paul says that AIDS is the great scourge of Uganda.

“Four out of 10 people in Uganda are HIV positive,” he says. “At the start no one knew what it was, people thought it was a disease of witchcraft. Because of ignorance, so many people died of AIDS.

“Now there is awareness. The government and the president have done a lot to make the people aware, and the number of cases of AIDS is decreasing because of this awareness.

“But even with this many parents have died and there are many orphans.

“The archdiocese of Kampala has three orphanages looking after about 150 boys and girls.

“But one of the good things about Uganda is, because of the extended families, we are so close together, it is difficult to know how anyone could be left unattended – people take care of their cousins and nieces and so on. You also see children caring for children. If the parents die the elder children take over looking after the smaller ones.”

Mons Paul does not feel that condoms are the answer to AIDS, despite some people in the Church taking the position that their use would at least help to prevent deaths.

“The Catholic Church does not condone condoms, he says. “When we preach we discourage the use of them.

“Instead the Church is encouraging behavioural change. The government and other agencies are encouraging the use of condoms and the people have learnt to use condoms and they are saying because of the use of condoms AIDS is under control.

“The Church’s view is that the use of condoms encourages promiscuity and gives people false hope, it tells young people ‘use condoms and you can’t get AIDS’.

“Young people go to entertainment places with condoms where they get drunk and have sex. They have condoms but they forget to use them because they are drunk, so the condoms are of no use.

“Also condoms have a time limit which if passed means they are dangerous. We prefer to encourage behavioural change, which is the surest and safest way to get rid of AIDS.”

Mons Paul says Christianity is very strong in Uganda.

“Many people are returning to belief, to faith,” he says. “The Catholic Church is about 43 per cent in Uganda, a bit less than 10 million people. The Protestant Churches are about 40 per cent, and Muslims about 10–15 per cent.

“So the Church is very strong, but now the Pentecostal Churches are taking young people away from the traditional Churches; they think the Pentecostal Churches are more entertaining.

“They have more money and they say to the young people we can take you on a world trip. The Catholic Church doesn’t have the money but we have the foundation and the faith and we use what money we have to help, to see that everybody is helped.”

Mons Paul is in Australia for a holiday and to visit friends, but also to look up Fr Terry Bell (national director of Catholic Mission Australia) and invite him to see what Catholic Mission is doing in Uganda.

“They have built schools, looked after orphans, built churches, educated seminarians, given money to convents, helped a number of vocations to priesthood and religious life, helped with clean water supplies, and built halls and public places for Christian communities,” he says. “It is good we have their help for the country.”

Asked what made him become a priest, Mons Paul says the priesthood in Uganda is one of the most prestigious offices you can have.

“Priests are highly respected, the seminarian education system is good and highly disciplined,” he says. “Coming from a big family it was difficult to get educated and to reach a certain standard. I also had many friends who were priests and who helped me to become a priest.

“Secondly, I wanted to help people. After all the struggles we went through as a family and survived, I had many priests who had encouraged me to reach a level of education, and I wanted to do that for others. I was also very spiritually drawn to becoming a priest.”

Mons Paul is quietly confident that the problems of Uganda can be overcome.

“Democracy is slowly coming to Uganda through international pressure and the desires of the people,” he says. “Over time stability is coming to the country. As far as AIDS is concerned, the people are having to discipline themselves, and respect themselves in order to at least survive.

“We need to work hard, the Church needs to let people know they will have to work hard to get out of poverty.

“The problem is that many people think they can get things without working. When people with a white skin come to Uganda, Ugandans think they have all the money and can give all the money.

“So they say: ‘Give me, give me, give me’. It is not easy to solve that begging syndrome, which we must fight. God has given us a good country, if we work hard we can get out of poverty.”