Vatican City (Fides Service) - The President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato R. Martino will visit Gulu, Kalongo and Kitgum three towns in war torn northern area of Uganda. The main purpose of the visit, which will include a Mass at Namugongo on June 3rd on the annual commemoration of Carlo Lwanga and 21 Companion Martyrs canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1964, is to meet the authorities, members of local Justice and Peace commissions, representatives of religious and Catholic lay associations involved in social work and to visit refugee camps and hospitals to comfort the victims of the war which has devastated Uganda for 18 years.
On Monday May 31 in Kampala the Cardinal give a talk to members of parliament, local Justice and Peace Commissions and local religious leaders on Christian commitment on the social and political field in the light of the Church’s Social Doctrine. On June 2 Cardinal Martino will be in Gulu, to visit a refugee camp and take part in a meeting of religious and lay leaders working for reconciliation and peace. The next day, 3 June, after visiting refugees in another camp, people wounded in the war and local city authorities in Kalongo, he will go to Kitgum, for a meeting with the local Parents’ Association and Women’s Association and to visit a military hospital.
On 3 June, the last day of the visit, the Cardinal will go to Namugongo not far from the capital, to preside a solemn Mass in commemoration of the Ugandan martyrs at the place where they were killed and in the afternoon he will have a meeting with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Uganda. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 29/5/2004 - Righe 20; Parole 297)