“People are joining”: Legion of Mary Official in Uganda on Membership after Centenary Fete

He said that the move to celebrate the event in all the 19 Catholic Dioceses of the country rather than just having one national celebration enabled great participation at the Diocesan level; the celebrations provided a platform to make the movement known at the grassroots. 

The native of Uganda’s Mbarara Archdiocese recalled the events realized at Parish and sub-Parish levels, saying, “Celebrations happened in every outstation and this was a reminder to the people that despite the hardships that came with COVID-19 life must continue.”

The manner in which the event was celebrated, he further said, “also helped our members to be reignited as the number of Legionaries and also attendance at the meetings that had reduced now increased.” 

“During the celebrations, we also did some recruitment of new members, and also some councils opened up,” the official of the Legion of Mary in Uganda further said, adding that some Bishops appreciated the impacts of the celebrations and advocated for either annual or biennial celebrations to keep in touch with members.

“The celebrations also helped us as Legionaries to renew our commitments to serve after realizing that we had abandoned the history of the movement,” Mr. Nashaba told ACI Africa. 

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He recalled the last September celebrations, saying they were “actually a kickstarter for us for the next centenary for those who will be present at that time.”

In the August 24 interview, Mr. Nashaba also said that since the Centenary celebrations, which were used to increase awareness about the Marian movement, the negative perceptions that presented the movement as belonging to old people and to women have been corrected.

“The message we were taking there is that Legion of Mary is not for the old, for women and for a particular class, but is for everyone,” said the Ugandan official of the “lay apostolic association of Catholics who, with the sanction of the Church and under the powerful leadership of Mary Immaculate, Mediatrix of All Graces, serve the Church and their neighbor on a voluntary basis in about 170 countries,” as highlighted in the Legion of Mary website.

Senatus of Uganda is the highest governing Council of the Legion of Mary in the country. The Marian movement worldwide started on 7 September 1921. In Uganda, the first meeting was held on 24 September 1938.

“The Senatus of Uganda was granted to Uganda from the then Senatus of East Africa and the inauguration was on 20th May 1962 in the presence of the late Archbishop Joseph Kiwánuka that played a great role in promoting Legion of Mary in Uganda,” reads in part the website of the Legion of Mary in East African nation.