Joseph Nakabaale Kiwanuka was born on June 25, 1899, in Nakirebe,
Mpigi District, to
Catholic parents, Victoro Katumba Munduekanika and Felicitas Nankya Ssabawebwa. Each day, Victoro and his family walked eight miles to
Mass at the nearest
mission station. He was sent to Mitala Maria Mission School in 1910, after a
missionary, who had seen him reading a book, was favorably impressed by this ability. He graduated in 1914, whence he entered the
minor seminary in Kiwánuka where he found his
vocation greatly tested but persevered nonetheless. He then joined the
Katigondo National Major Seminary of Villa Maria, where he excelled in
philosophy, and sought to enter the
Missionaries of Africa, more commonly known as the White Fathers, in 1923. However, Bishop
Henri Streicher, the
Apostolic Vicar of Uganda and himself a White Father, was against his decision. The Superior General of the White Fathers at the time finally agreed to admit Kiwánuka after his
ordination. He was
ordained to the
priesthood by Bishop Streicher on May 26, 1929. Streicher then sent the young priest to
Rome to study
canon law, in an attempt to prevent him from entering the White Fathers'
novitiate, which had invited Kiwánuka in July of that year. In Rome, Kiwánuka studied at the
Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, from where he later obtained his
doctorate in canon law, with a
dissertation on
marriage. He finally entered the novitiate of the White Fathers in
Algeria on October 8, 1932, becoming a full member of the congregation nearly a year later, on October 12, 1933. Upon his return to Uganda in 1933, he did
pastoral work in
Bikira and
Bujuni, and taught at the Katigondo Seminary. On May 25, 1939, a day before the tenth anniversary of his priestly ordination, Kiwánuka was appointed the first
Apostolic Vicar of Masaka and
Titular Bishop of
Thibica by
Pope Pius XII. He received his
episcopal consecration on the October 29 from Pope Pius himself, with
Archbishops Celso Costantini and Henri Streicher, MAfr, serving as
co-consecrators, in
St. Peter's Basilica. Kiwánuka was thus made the first native
African
bishop. He visited the
United States in 1950. He was opposed by
African nationalists as well, many of whom viewed
Christianity as belonging to
Western culture. The Archbishop died shortly afterwards in
Entebbe at the age of 66. He is buried in the
metropolitan cathedral of Rubaga. == References ==