On Thursday last week, Police boosted by the army battled with a group of enraged Christians in Arua that reportedly massed overnight in an attempt to evict Arua Catholic Diocese Bishop Sabino Odoki.
The Christians’ anger had been sparked off three weeks ago at a burial the diocese’s Emeritus Bishop Frederick Drandua.
They accused Bishop Sabino of treating his predecessor (Frederick Drandua) inappropriately, during his hour of need after the diocese failed to raise money, and allegedly declined guarantee for his treatment in Italy.
“The conflict that happened on Thursday is not something that just sparked off on that specific; it started [from 2010] when I was appointed the Bishop of Arua diocese,” Bishop Sabino spoke to the Daily Monitor on Monday.
“There was a group of Christians who called themselves concerned Christians led by Mr Martin Andua Drani. His name has been featuring a lot in Arua Diocese,” He revealed.
He (Bishop Sabino) said that Mr Martin Andua started writing many bad things about him in Arua diocese just to tarnish his administration.
“I never tried to answer anything he wrote or said against me, but I think he has gone too far,” The Bishop added.
“In Catholic Church, tribalism should not be there because our church is universal. But the way these groups where mobilising themselves, I see that they are using tribalism to pull support. In my assessment, I think there is issue of having power of the diocese and resources in their hands,” He further told the Daily Monitor.
“People who destroy property, what a shame! This means their thinking capacity has stopped. This could be the work of the devil that doesn’t want to see the work of the Catholic Church to continue and any Christian would not do that.”
The Bishop distanced self from rumors of financial mismanagement, urging that under his administration, no money is lost and no money is embezzled because he set up a system, which he says his rivals don’t want.
“In our Catholic Church, we teach about love, love of God, love of one another. Even if they don’t love the Bishop, I am not eternal and time will come for me to move on. Destroying church property is unjustifiable. People who are in their good mind seek dialogue, but if you go and destroy to express yourself, it shows that you have no capacity for dialogue,”
“Those behind the plot to stone us are not Christians because by the time you pick a stone to throw against your bishop, you would have lost Christianity,”
Concerning the treatment of Frederick Drandua abroad, the Bishop stated that Italy proved difficult because they could not give him Visa and there was no hospital ready to admit him.
He also says that the Italian embassy told the diocese that the hospital admitting the Bishop was supposed to write a letter proving that 30 per cent of the cost of treatment had been paid to them, and since they had no admission, getting the letter proved futile.
“We changed our plans and resorted to India. I instructed Fr Alfred Asiku and he got a hospital in India. They asked for CT scan of the late Bishop Emeritus Drandua which was sent, they described his sickness and put a cost of US$ 25,000 (Shs82m) which we had by then. They put a condition for a guarantor to sign that in any case the cost of treatment rises, that person will pay and I said I will sign for the Bishop,” He said.
“The hospital administration put another condition that we had to first carry out a medical test on the Bishop for a particular disease, which was technical for me to understand, before he could be flown for treatment. The test was to be carried on September 1, 2016, but unfortunately the Bishop died. This issue that I never cared about the Bishop is totally wrong. I catered for the (hospital) bill all amounting to Shs15 million from the diocese,”
Bishop Sabino Odoki concluded by saying that he will continue with his work, and that he is still the Bishop of Arua Diocese.
male@ugchristiannews.com
