Bishop Ssemogerere picked to oversee Kampala Archdiocese

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT  |  Pope Francis VI has appointed the Bishop of Kasana Luwero, Paul Ssemwogerere, as the Apostolic Administrator of Kampala Archdiocese, until a substantive archbishop is appointed. 

This was announced by the Pope’s representative to Uganda, (Papal Nuncio) Archbishop Bianco Luigi at the burial ceremony of the Late Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga at Rubaga Cathedral. In the message, he consoled the Catholic Church in Uganda and the world for the loss of a great and committed shepherd like Dr Lwanga.

Speaking at the Requiem Mass at Sacred Heart Rubaga Cathedral where the late Archbishop Dr. Cyprian Kizito Lwanga has been buried, the Papal Nuncio said the Holy See was grateful for Bishop Ssemogerere and sent its “best wishes to the Archbishop and invite him to collaborate in exercising his responsibility in the service of this Archdiocese of Kampala in this time of a vacant seat.”

Bishop Ssemogerere, 64, was born on 30th June 1956, at Kisubi in the Archdiocese of Kampala.

He was ordained a priest on 3rd June 1983, appointed the second Bishop of Kasana–Luweero on 4th June 2008.

He was ordained a Bishop and installed on 23rd August, 2008 at Kasana-Luweero by Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga.

Role of the Apostolic Administrator

The Archdiocese of Kampala is now in a time of “sede vacante,” as the seat of the diocese is vacant until a new bishop is appointed and installed.

The chairperson of the Episcopal Conference Bishop Anthony Zziwa clarified that the appointment of Bishop Ssemogerere doesn’t have any effect on his role as the head of Kasana Luwero. Instead, he will govern the diocese in the name of the Supreme Pontiff and coordinate the day to day work of the Archdiocese until the Pope names a new Archbishop.

Unlike an ordinary Bishop or Archbishop, the administrator has only vicarious power, governing not in his own name, but in the name of the Pope whose jurisdiction he exercises in line with canon law 371. It stipulates that “an apostolic administration is a certain portion of the people of God which is not erected as a Diocese by the Supreme Pontiff due to special and particularly grave reasons.”

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URN