Holy Cross - District of East Africa

Mission Statement of the District of East Africa

"Come follow me." We have heard this call of the Lord Jesus. We believed his Gospel and became his disciples. Strengthened by a rich heritage, we seek to build upon it. Our founder had a vision of brothers, priests and sisters working together in a ministry we now share. We believe prayer is the indispensable force uniting us in common commitment to discipleship. Thus, we gather daily for the Lord's Supper and to praise him in the psalm and personal prayer.

Holy Cross ministers are in many nations teaching that Jesus loves all people. In the local church of East Africa and Rwanda, we bring this good news and share it with as many as we can reach. We encourage each other and those we serve to express this Gospel through all aspects of our rich cultures. Young Africans who hear the call of Holy Cross continue to join in our mission and way of life. Vital to our growth, they are beginning to take responsibility for leadership in Holy Cross and the widen church.

Conscious of our strengths and limitations and with openness to the Spirit's guiding signs, we endeavor to stay flexible in our choice of ministries and to the call of justice. Our charism and our abilities direct us towards parish ministry and education in schools as priorities, giving preference to service among the poor and the neediest.

We go into mission as friends and neighbors to those we serve, listening to and learning from them. Being faithful to our charism, our efforts will be marked by hospitality, collaboration, and solidarity. To sustain our work, we strive toward spiritual deepening, intellectual growth, and material self-support. "Go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last" It is the Lord Jesus sending us.

The History of Holy Cross in East Africa

It was 2:30 am April 10, 1958. Fr. Vincent McCauley was still in his 15-hour flight from Rome to Entebbe, coming to see if Holy Cross was needed in Uganda. In his pocket diary he wrote: “Antecedent Impression: This is going a long way to look over a mission that 3 to 30 CSC’s might work in all their lives. It better be good, or ‘no soap’.”

November 4, 1958 – 1969: 1st Generation

It was more than good. Less than seven months later, Vince McCauley returned with Fathers Bob Hesse, Frank Zagorc and Bert Smith of the Indiana Province (IP) of Holy Cross. Within a year, three brothers of the Eastern Province of Brothers: Christian Stinnett, John Harrington and Cyrinus Martin, would also be missionaries in Uganda. Both homogeneous provinces would send very young, inexperienced men, but men with enthusiasm and energy. Things moved quickly in a country that was moving towards independence.

In March 1961, McCauley was named Bishop of the newly erected diocese of Fort Portal. The priests of Holy Cross would open 6 new parishes: Bukwali, Munteme, Kahunge, Kasese, Kasanga and Kitegwenda, and build the physical and spiritual infrastructure that was needed for this new diocese. The brothers assumed the administration and taught in three schools: St Augustine Teacher Training College, St. Leo’s College and St. Mary’s Minor Seminary. Bishop McCauley set a policy that all parishes and structures built were to be put in the name of the new diocese: CSC was here to build up the local church. The schools in which the brothers worked were owned by the Government of Uganda, and the seminary was owned by the diocese of Fort Portal. In 1962, Holy Cross did purchase land outside of Fort Portal town, in Saaka, as its own, for a future district headquarters.

In 1967, the first group of Holy Cross Sisters arrived in Uganda and assumed the administration of St. Maria Goretti Girls’ Secondary School in Fort Port. Under their direction, it evolved from an educational institution for the formation of young women who desired to enter women’s religious communities, into a prestigious girls’ secondary school. In 1968, two sister nurses arrived and began hospital work in Bundibugyo Hospital.

1970-1980: Things Fall Apart

The reign of Idi Amin changed everything and everyone in Uganda. Deprivations, terror, and war replaced the beauty of the Pearl of Africa. Missionaries were threatened with expulsion. In an effort to prepare the young diocese for the unknown ahead, Bishop McCauley resigned at the end of 1972 and handed over the diocese to a Ugandan Bishop. CSC priests were asked to work in auxiliary positions only, with Ugandan priests in charge, and the brothers turned over the administration of the schools to Ugandans. In 1973, the District Chapter voted to phase out CSC presence in Uganda, but the IP Provincial Chapter overruled this resolution. With expulsion a real possibility, the Eastern Brothers province sent two men to Mwanza, Tanzania in 1974 to begin a new mission, and the IP sent two men to begin a new parish in Dandora, Nairobi, Kenya. The sisters made similar changes, turning over direction of St. Maria Goretti School to the Ugandan Banyatereza sisters in 1974, remaining in Fort Portal as teachers at the school.

Despite all the uncertainty and confusion, CSC did not leave Uganda, even when the American embassy closed its mission in 1976 for more than three years. But the tension and terror of the time took its toll. By the end of the decade there were 14 Holy Cross men in Uganda: 6 priests and 8 brothers; and 10 sisters.

1981-1991: Birth of a 2nd Generation

The fall of Amin did not bring peace, but in fact increased chaos, terror and war in Uganda. Between 1979 and 1986, a civil war between former president Milton Obote and then rebel leader Yoweri Museveni, made ministry difficult for all societies of Holy Cross. At the same time, the men and women of Holy Cross took a leap of faith - to wait for peace could be to wait forever. All societies of Holy Cross decided independently to recruit vocations. In 1982, candidate formation programs were opened in Dandora, Kenya for seminarians and at Virika in Fort Portal for the brothers. “Holy Cross is in Africa to stay” was a major declaration of the All Africa CSC Meeting held in Nairobi in 1984. A joint novitiate for the two homogeneous provinces was opened on the feast of the Uganda Martyrs: June 3, 1984 at Saaka in Fort Portal. In 1986, CSC joined other religious congregations to form the Theological Consortium at Tangaza in Nairobi. In 1987, the sisters both in Uganda and Ghana began recruiting vocations with their formation programs in various communities abroad and the novitiate in Israel.

At the December 1987 District Chapter of men, an historic decision was made. As the congregation as a whole was celebrating the sesquicentennial of the Fundamental Pact, the members of the IP district joined with the members of the EB mission to declare their intention to live and work as a ‘mixed’ or unified district: our own Fundamental Pact! A new vitality followed.

In 1989, the Philosophy Centre at Jinja (PCJ) began and in 1990 a joint novitiate was established, with Ghanaians coming to Saaka. Also in 1990, Bugembe Parish in Jinja was placed under the direction CSC, the first Holy Cross parish in Uganda in more than 20 years, and Fulgens Katende was ordained as the first indigenous CSC priest of the district.

The sisters continued teaching, but expanded their health work from institutions to community based preventative medicine. They also celebrated first vows of their first 2 African sisters, one from Uganda and one from Ghana in 1990, with others in formation.

By the end of the decade, the unified district numbered 39 professed men and 8 professed women.

1992-2004: Growing toward Maturity

East Africa was still an unstable region: wars and an earthquake shook Uganda, Kenya was adversely affected by increased poverty and political unrest, and Rwanda was decimated by genocide. Six CSC men in Rwanda were killed. In August 1994, 11 Rwandese CSC brothers came to the district as refugees of the genocide.

A new candidate house of formation for men, Andre House, was opened in Jinja in 1994. That same year, CSC assumed responsibility for its 3rd parish: Kyarusozi in Fort Portal Diocese. In 1997, the Rwandese Brothers and the CSC property in Rwanda were officially incorporated as part of the District of East Africa. McCauley House, the new post-novitiate formation house in Nairobi Kenya was dedicated in November of 2000. A fourth CSC parish, St. Brendan’s in Kitete, Tanzania, was also opened that same year. The district assumed ownership of its first school: CSC Lakeview in Jinja the following year, and dedicated its new headquarters, Bishop McCauley House in Nsambya, Kampala on September 14th, 2002.

The sisters experienced similar growth. In 1992, they opened their own formation house, Maria Concepta, in Wanyange, within Bugembe Parish, due to an increase in vocations. Holy Cross sisters also moved to Jinja to aid in the establishment of Lakeview, with Sr. Mary Louise Wahler assuming the position of Head Mistress. In 1994, Uganda and Ghana formed the African Area, coordinating their administration and formation programs. Due to guerrilla war in the west of Uganda, the sisters shifted their health work yet again and opened a women’s health and education center in Kyarusozi in 1998, working with women’s development, health, and counselling.

We remember Vincent McCauley’s hope in 1958 that his exploratory journey to East Africa would be worth the long trip. Forty-six years later, with the continued blossoming of their ministries, we can surely say: it was worth the soap!

Provided by James Nichols, CSC
With reference to James T. Connelly, CSC, “Holy Cross in East Africa 1958-1980”, Province Archives Center, Notre Dame, Indiana, 1981.