“The Proposal to get Namugongo out of control of the Church and gazette it as a pure tourism site is unthinkable. No amount of need should tempt us to divert from our goal of maintaining Namugongo as a holy place where people come to be inspired by the devotion of the Holy Martrys of Uganda,”
The above remarks were made by Rev. Fr Vincent Lubega, the Rector of Namugongo Catholic Shrine, which is hosting Martyrs Day June 3.
For the last four decades, media reports show Uganda Martyrs Namugongo has been growing consistently as one of the faith-based and cultural tourism sites.
Pilgrims travel to this site by foot from as far as Kenya, BurUndi, Nigeria, Tanzania among other African countries, whereas others fly in from America, the UK, India, Brazil to honor the martyrs.
On June 3, 2014, His Excellency President Museveni pledged to support the construction and rehabilitation of infrastructure at the shrines under the redevelopment programme aimed at turning the shrines into a world class tourist site.
“Our intention is to develop Namugongo into a tourist site, so that beyond Martyrs Day, people can continue visiting the place,” The permanent secretary Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife, and Antiquities, Doreen Katusiime recently told media.
She adds that government intends to double tourism earnings from the current $1.5b to $2.7b by 2020, with efforts made to increase and polish the existing religious sites.
It is however not clear whether such efforts will not see the sacred ground fully commercialized, a move the Church is against.
Rev. Fr Vincent Lubega, the Rector of Namugongo Catholic Shrine, said this week that a proposal aimed at commercializing Namugongo should not loose focus of its “religious aspects and sanctity.”
Media reports purport that their is a planned moved to introduce entertainment activities at the shines. Rev Lubega says this is reducing the “holy shrine of the glorious martyrs to a mere theater.”
“It is not propoer to charge pilgrims who come to have a faith experience and we will not do that. What we charge is a tourist fee, respective of those people who come to admire and hear the story of Namugongo for purposes of adventure. The little money the tourists give us is what we use to pay our staff. But even is our visitors are pure tourists, we try to orient them towards faith,” Rev. Fr Vincent Lubega says.
aaron@ugchristiannews.com
