In Pace Christi

Fr. Christopher was born in Ndaija, in Uganda, on 12 February 1958. He entered the novitiate at Tartar (KE), took first vows on 27 April 1985 and, after the scholasticate in Kampala, he made his perpetual profession at on 9 April 1988. He was ordained priest on 22 January 1989.

Fr. Umberto Pescantini recalls: “Christopher was a member of one of the first small groups of postulants which I was happy to receive at Alokolum (Gulu, Uganda). He always seemed to me to be quite shy but with sufficient resources to become a good missionary. Immediately after his ordination, he was sent to Paris to study French and, before the end of that year he was already in Afanya in Togo studying the local language. In mid-1990, he was curate at the mission of Vogan and in 1994 superior of the community of Aklakou. In 1999, he completed his work in Togo serving the parish of Adidogomé. From October of that year to June 2000, he took part in the Comboni year of Ongoing Formation at Germiston in South Africa. I think he was rather surprised when, at the end of the Comboni Year, the superiors appointed him formator at the Nairobi scholasticate. He succeeded in carrying out this task with generosity for some years. However, his health was not good and the superiors had to find someone to take his place.

He was assigned to the NAP on 1 January 2005. He first stayed at the provincial house in Cincinnati and was then assigned to the community of Kitchener in Canada. He was a warm person, friendly and appreciated both by the people and the confreres. Since his mother was sick, he asked to be close to her and, in 2006, he was transferred to Uganda. He was first appointed to the parish of Kyamuhunga where he stayed for eleven years and then moved to Rushere”.

Rushere is about 250 km from Kampala, the capital, and is located in the south-east of the country towards Tanzania and Rwanda. No matter where he went – some of his benefactors told us – he carried with him those priorities that distinguished his work and the first of these was to improve the life of the children. In both these missions, Fr. Christopher, being responsible for such projects, sought help – and found it – to build water cisterns. In particular, in 2018, he managed to build two of them: one was for Kikoni primary school and the other for that of St. Peter. In Rushere, while responsible for a pastoral area three times the size of the previous one, he held a number of meetings with those in charge of the schools of the area and with the parents of the children attending those schools. Again, the problem of clean water came up. Very often, children would get sick and could not attend school which meant they were behind with their lessons to the detriment of the schooling. Fr. Christopher had immediately identified the more urgent situations but, in his letter of thanks for the financial help received, he added: “We still have 14 primary schools that have no clean water. It is my hope that you will be generous enough to continue to help our children”.

During those same years, Fr. Christopher also served the Ugandan province as provincial secretary of evangelisation. His short life of service to the mission was cut short by a tumour.