Kampala Archdiocese will on January 5, 2023 join the universal Catholic Church in final prayers for the demised Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere has announced.
Born Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI died on Saturday aged 95 at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery. In the aftermath, the Vatican Press office announced that a funeral mass would be held on January 5, 2023, ahead of burial at the Vatican Crypt. The body now lies in state at St Peter’s Basilica.
While Pope Francis, successor to Benedict will lead the Vatican prayers, the prayers by the Catholic Church in Uganda will be led by the Papal Nuncio Archbishop Luigi Bianco at Lubaga Cathedral on the same day.
Speaking at the Institute of the Brothers of Christian Instruction - Kisubi (BCIK) in mass during which six members took perpetual vows to serve the Church, Kampala Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere said other dioceses of the Church worldwide would hold similar masses ahead of the laying to rest of the former Church head who made history in 2013 when he resigned from the papacy.
Archbishop Ssemogerere said that all dioceses of the Church had been asked to hold prayers for the soul of the deceased pontiff. He called upon Christians to turn up in large numbers to pray for the repose of the soul of the former Pope.
