The Soroti Catholic Diocese has urged its believers to include the church leaders in their prayers. This request comes as the diocese mourns the passing of Rev. Fr. Romanus Etwap, who died on Wednesday night after colliding with a stationary Fuso on the Soroti-Mbale road in Soroti City.
Leading the prayers at Madera Minor Seminary, where hundreds of believers had converged for the National Charismatic Renewal Conference, the Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Soroti, Monsignor Robert Echogu, informed the congregation of Fr. Etwap’s tragic accident.
“Fr. Etwap got involved in an accident yesterday as he was heading back to Soroti. We want to thank God for the gift of his life, and today he would be here joining us for adoration that happens every Thursday. I believe he was rushing back to Soroti before that program because without that obligation, he might have rested in Ngora. He needed to reach Immaculate Conception so that he could start the adoration this morning. May the Lord receive him, and may he continue his adoration with us in heaven, where we all hope to go,” Echogu stated.
Echogu encouraged the believers to ensure that they involve the church leaders in their prayers during such trying moments when the church is battling divisions amongst its members.
“My dear brothers and sisters, I hope we see why it is so important to pray for our religious leaders. They are also human, but God has granted them authority to lead us unto Him. If we don’t keep them in our prayers, they will become blind and lead us astray, like many who have led the big church astray,” he noted.
He stated that, through the Soroti Diocese, they have set a special adoration day on the last Thursday of every month to pray for priests throughout the world.
“Don’t be a Christian who is an introvert, looking for only your good from God and failing to see that the church is a union. The welfare of others contributes to your own welfare and salvation. Jesus emphasizes us to have humility and never show that we’re wise in this world, but accept being a fool to be obedient,” Echogu urged.
According to Msgr. Echogu, pride and the desire to know it all brought a lot of division in the early church of Corinth, a disease that continues to afflict church leaders today. “Are there no divisions among the charismatics? Are there no divisions among our charismatic leaders?” he questioned the congregation.
”When leaders are not helped, they try to become wiser than God, and they begin to act wiser than the old-age church that was founded by Jesus himself. Just know that danger and division have surfaced, and that’s why the devil is targeting us. So, let us pray for one another because if you forget to pray for church leaders, that’s where the devil will pass to put them down. Pray for the leaders so that they gain the help of the Holy Spirit to lead the church. My personal assessment is that most of our renewal leaders have become selfish,” Echogu added.
He stressed that during the early days, church leaders were more zealous compared to these days when many have begun to “sleep. The Soroti City mayor, Francis Esudu, encouraged the people of Teso to sympathize with the Catholic Church during this difficult time.
“It’s a sad day when we heard about the tragic death of Fr. Etwap, who died due to the driver’s negligence in parking the fuso truck on the side of the narrow road without any indicators,” Esudu stated.
Esudu urged the government to construct a bypass for Soroti City to reduce such incidents caused by trailers and other heavy trucks passing through the town.
“The challenge we are facing is that all the trailers pass in the middle of the town due to the lack of a bypass. We have tried all our endeavors to bring this to the attention of the government, but we have not received any feedback.”
Esudu added that they have held multiple meetings with drivers to encourage them to park in designated areas and not along the narrow roads. “Traffic is aware because we have engaged these drivers to stop parking and offloading goods along the roads,” Esudu noted-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
