Catholic Church in Uganda to intensify campaign against domestic violence in advent

The Catholic Church in Uganda has decided to scale-up its national campaign against domestic violence. This is according to a statement made available to Vatican Radio by the Uganda Episcopal Conference.

Starting on 30 November 2014, which is the first Sunday of Advent, all Catholic parishes and  sub-parishes in Uganda are being encouraged to organise liturgical services in such a way that the topic of domestic violence in all its forms becomes more pronounced during advent. Families have been requested to pray and be committed to individually taking-up responsibility to end domestic violence.

The Archbishop of Gulu and Chairman of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, John Baptist Odama says the theme chosen for the campaign is, “SHARED DECISIONS, SHARED DEVELOPMENT, SHARED HAPINESS”. This is with the belief that families working together and praying together will be violence-free.

The Archbishop has appealed to the Catholic faithful to join hands with the Church in the fight against the vice so that families and communities may truly be places where the dignity of every person is respected and where peace, joy, and love is experienced.

The main campaign against domestic violence in Uganda has been going on since 2010 in partnership with the Irish organisations, Trócaire and Irish Aid. The advent campaign seeks to create awareness about the problem of domestic violence and to bring about behaviour change.

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