Visit to Gulu, Uganda

Asher Kaufman, age 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. From Uganda he traveled by car to Rwanda on September 28. Asher grew up helping the Children's Rosary and participating in it. He now is helping to spread the Children's Rosary to more parishes and schools. He is also discerning a vocation to the priesthood and has applied to the seminary through the Archdiocese of Hartford. Please keep both his trip and his vocation in your prayers. He has been sharing dispatches from the trip.  

"On Thursday, October 8, Br. Henry, Kizito, and I set out for the city of Gulu in northern Uganda. This was a journey that Henry had done much planning for given that it was about as long as going to Rwanda, and we did not have much time to waste since we could only spend one full day there. 

We first paid a visit to St. John Paul II Secondary School. This is a place that Henry himself has done much for since its founding in 2019. Despite its being such a young institution, it has much to be proud of, in my opinion. We were present for a graduation Mass before the students take their exams in a few days, and the speeches given, the behavior displayed convinced me that this really was a special place with a high academic standard. The celebrant for the Mass was Msgr. John Wynand Katende, a very important man in the archdiocese and a holy one too. He has a charism of engaging in much silent prayer, and his homily was very insightful, I thought. Afterwards, I spent some time talking to him and some of the students present. They were a very nice group of young people, open, frank, and interesting. 

After our visit to the secondary school, we got in the car and started our long trek up north. It was a multiple hour ride, but finally after leaving at 2:00, we reached the hotel around 9:00 pm. It was a comfortable place, which I was glad for. We all managed to get some good rest, which we would need for the next day's visits.

The next morning, we met with Sister Milly Rose, a nun in charge of schools for the entire country.(shown in blue in the top picture) She had met with my mother about a month and a half ago in Connecticut when she was visiting our parish. She had asked us to visit Gulu and to meet with the education secretary of the archdiocese and to meet with the archbishop.(see picture below) 

She and the education secretary first took us to visit Ocer Campion Jesuit College where we were given a very nice tour of the school. It had only recently been opened in 2010 after the civil war that had ripped through northern Uganda during the 1990s and early 2000s. Atrocities and killings had terrorized the region, and it was only in the early 2010s that the situation calmed down enough for the region to begin to flourish again and open schools such as this one. 

We then visited Mary Immaculate Primary School where we visited with the sisters who run the school and have a small community there. Then we proceeded to meet with the archbishop. Archbishop Wokorach was very kind and listened attentively to what we had to say. He was very open to the movement gave us permission to move forward with rolling out the Children's Rosary in his diocese. He is a very interesting man, being a missionary of the Comboni community. 

That evening we drove out to the parish of Fr. Joel Okot. Fr. Okot has been in communication with my mother and has initiated the Children's Rosary in his parish before. We were very glad to have met him; he is a very joyful man, open and friendly. He showed us the church which even had a door with bullet holes on it, left as a memorial from a shootout that happened in that very spot with rebels during the civil war in the 1990s. 

After sleeping for the night in Gulu, we returned the next morning to Kampala. We stopped on the way at Mulajje parish in Luweero where I had visited when I first arrived. Joseph, Fr. Jude's brother, was coming from Kampala with the rosaries, and so we were on hand to officially drop them off at the parish. I was glad we were able to go. 

That night, we got back to Kampala in the early afternoon and went to go meet a certain monsignor named Msgr. Lawrence Ssemusu of the archdiocese. As it happened, Br. Henry had obtained his book at the ceremony at St. John Paul II Secondary school; this book, called From Banana Plantation to the Altar, details his life story and includes the many people who have helped him reach where he is today. 

It is very nicely written, and I was so captivated by it that I read nearly all of it on the drive to and from Gulu; this was quite extraordinary as I struggle even to read briefly in the car due to motion sickness, but this time, I was able. The book speaks of his journey from a small village in Uganda to the seminary, to studying for the priesthood in the United States, to parish life, to obtaining a doctorate in Belgium, to becoming a deputy vice chancellor at Uganda Martyrs University, to being a chaplain at Makerere University Business School in Kampala, where he works now. When we visited him, he showed us how he has completely created from scratch (there was no Catholic chaplain there before him) a church, a grotto, administrative offices, a residence, and more for the community there. He is a wonderfully nice person with a love of telling stories, and one could see why the students there must love him.

After having the privilege of meeting with this monsignor, we fought through some severe traffic jams to get back home so I could pack to leave Uganda the next day. 

To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE

Visit to the National Shrine of the Ugandan Martyrs

Asher Kaufman, age 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. From Uganda he traveled by car to Rwanda on September 28. Asher grew up helping the Children's Rosary and participating in it. He now is helping to spread the Children's Rosary to more parishes and schools. He is also discerning a vocation to the priesthood and has applied to the seminary through the Archdiocese of Hartford. Please keep both his trip and his vocation in your prayers. He has been sharing dispatches from the trip.  

"On Monday, October 6, was our last day in Mutukula. We spent most of the day visiting churches and schools in a neighboring parish to that of Fr. Alex Musoke. Our first stop was St. James School in Manyama. There was a small group of children waiting for us when we arrived, and we spoke to them and prayed in the chapel. Often we do not get a chance to pray an entire rosary with the children we visit because of time constraints though we would greatly like to do so. However, this group practically insisted we at least pray a decade with them which I was glad for.

We then visited St. Francis School in Kamaggwa (shown below) and St. Mary’s School in Kisunku(shown above). In both places, we were greeted by the head teacher who directed us to address the students gathered in a large hall. I am always appreciative of when a teacher is willing to interrupt school programming in order to accommodate our visits.

After this, we stopped by to visit a friend of Fr. Alex’s, Fr. Steven Lutwama. This was another priest of the diocese who was interested in the Children’s Rosary, and I was glad we had the opportunity to meet him.

That evening, we said goodbye to Fr. Alex Musoke, who had accompanied us all the way through Rwanda. We were and are very grateful that he took the time off from his parish duties to be with us, and his presence certainly made a difference, whether in meetings with diocesan officials and bishops or simply relaxing in the car on our multi-hour drives each day.

We then visited one last school, Kapere Parents Primary School, which we had stopped by twice before but never had a change to really address the students. We felt bad having had to bag out twice due to being short on time, so this time we were able to address the students before driving back to Kampala. On our way to the city, we stopped at the equator, and Henry took my picture there. It is one of those rather calm tourist destinations with no crowds or anything but nonetheless rather nifty.

The next day, Tuesday, October 7, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, was our only whole day in Kampala for the rest of the trip. I started out by going to Mass at 6:30 am, thanks to Henry’s uncle, Felix, who drove me there.  

Subsequent to the Mass, Henry and I set off for a meeting with the pastor of the local church where the liturgy was celebrated. This was a very nice man named Fr. Paul Ssemboga. He was interested in the Children’s Rosary, and gave the necessary contact for us to collaborate moving forward.

Our next stop was to one of our oldest groups in Uganda, at St. Johnson’s school.

 We had visited this school in 2019, and it was good to see them again. The children, despite having exams later that day, gathered in an auditorium and had entertainment and remarks prepared. It was a very warm welcome. I remember saying to the children in my short speech that often we are visiting schools where the Children’s Rosary has yet to be implemented and I am in the position of trying to explain why they should move ahead with it. It would be wonderful, I said, if I could just bring them here and show them this group that they might see how well it is run and the positive impacts it has had.

After St. Johnson’s school, we went to the National Shrine of the Ugandan Martyrs (shown directly above). 

Most of you are probably familiar with the story of the Ugandan Martyrs, but I will go into it a bit again since it is so important to the history of the Church in this region.

Beginning in the 1870s, there began what is sometimes termed as the “scramble for Africa.” This refers to an effort by European powers to acquire as much territory on the African continent as quickly as they could. It is rather remarkable when one considers it how brief the period of colonization of Africa really was. From 1870 to 1914, nearly the whole continent was enveloped in the control of various different European countries, among them Germany, Portugal, France, and Great Britain.

This colonization offered a chance for Britain to try to improve its trade deficit, grown painfully obvious in the “Long Depression” of 1873-1896, and for the other countries, it was a chance to restore the balance of power and try to take some of the trade for themselves.

With this influx of European control came the influx of Christian missionaries as had happened in other colonies before, such as in the Americas or China. In addition to traditional African religions, Islam had also established itself particularly near coastal areas, such as on the coast of modern day Zanzibar in Tanzania. This is because the Arab traders who frequented the coasts were Muslim. To this day, Tanzania has one of the largest Muslim minorities in East Africa, and that population is most populous next to the coast.

Beginning in the 1870s, British missionaries began arriving in Uganda at the invitation of the local King Muteesa. They were mostly Anglican, and they managed to win some notable converts, particularly among the nobles. Concurrently to them, some of the White Fathers, a French congregation founded in Rome in 1868 and tasked with serving as Missionaries to Africa, arrived in Uganda as well. These, of course, were Catholic and also had notable converts among the nobles.  

All was well until King Muteesa died and his son, King Mukasa, came to the throne. Feeling a bit threatened by these new converts cropping up, King Mukasa decided to send a message to the British by killing the newly appointed Anglican bishop of the region who had just arrived in Uganda, Bishop Hannington. In response, the leader of the Catholics in the king’s court and a longtime friend of the king, Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, confronted the monarch over this assassination. Balikuddembe, notwithstanding his friendship with the king, was sentenced to death and had his head cut off and burned. He said to his executioners before dying that, “A Christian that has surrendered his life to God is not afraid to die.” That was in 1885.

Six months later, in 1886, a young man named Charles Lwanga(shown above baptizing St Kizito before their martyrdom) had become the leader of the remaining Christians in the king’s court. In one way or another, the king found out that a significant number of his pages were Christians; in punishment he sent them on a long walk to Namugongo where they were martyred for their faith. The youngest of them was fourteen years old, a saint named Kizito. The execution Charles Lwanga was particularly brutal; he was slowly burned at the stake in a process that took several hours and gradually moved up his body.

In all, there is a record of 22 Catholics and 23 Anglicans being executed by King Mukasa, and it is certain that many others who were not of the royal court were killed in the persecutions that followed, but no record exists of those.

The martyrs were canonized in 1964 by Pope Saint Paul VI. The Basilica of the Ugandan Martyrs was built shortly thereafter in Namugongo, where they were executed.

We visited the grounds, prayed at the grotto, and then stopped by to visit a friend of Henry’s at Ugandan Martyrs University next door, one of the most prestigious universities in Uganda.

That evening, we stopped by the parish of Fr. Emmanuel (shown above) in the Lugazi diocese, Bukelere parish. He is another friend of Br. Henry’s who was only recently ordained and even more recently assigned to the parish. He is in charge of schools, and we will be working with him further to roll out the Children’s Rosary there. They were doing significant work to expand the church and prayer space, so we hope for only the best with that important work.

That evening, we returned to Br. Henry’s home before the next day’s trip to Gulu in the north of Uganda."

To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE

Returning to Uganda

Asher Kaufman, age 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. From Uganda he traveled by car to Rwanda on September 28. Asher grew up helping the Children's Rosary and participating in it. He now is helping to spread the Children's Rosary to more parishes and schools. He is also discerning a vocation to the priesthood and has applied to the seminary through the Archdiocese of Hartford. Please keep both his trip and his vocation in your prayers. He has been sharing dispatches from the trip.  

"On the afternoon of Saturday, October 4, we crossed back into Uganda after our trip into Rwanda. We were "home" again. It had been a packed trip to Rwanda, with quite a lot of driving, sometimes crisscrossing the same places more than once, but I have no doubt that it was quite worth it. The number of meetings we had and the people we met were extraordinary. 

After crossing the border, we traveled to Mbarara, a city in western Uganda that we had not visited for very long before. It is one of the biggest cities in the country and a diocese where we have a few Children's Rosary groups. 

In the evening, we visited St. Leo's preparatory School. We arrived late due to some extra steps when crossing the border, but the children were most excited to see us nonetheless. They shouted out a line I had heard more than once before when visiting a school in Uganda, "You are most welcome, our dear visitors!" I don't know if I will ever get used to the feeling of a hundred pairs of eyes focusing on me as I walk into the room. There's an undeniable feeling of expectation that's in the air, and no one wants to disappoint that. However, the experience has gotten easier since arriving. We spoke to the children concerning the Children's Rosary, and even though that school had been praying regularly, they agreed to pray as a Children's Rosary group every week. 

After visiting this school, we decided not to visit a second school we had planned to visit because the day students had already gone home, so we decided to visit the next day. Personally, I think this was a good decision as I had a pounding headache from the long journey and wanted to be able to give more of myself to the children when I felt better. 

The next morning, we woke up at 4:00 am, but not to visit children. We were going to visit some animals. Even though going on safari was not why I came to Africa, it still seemed to make sense to make a stop at Queen Elizabeth National Park since we were going right past it. 

The park was founded in 1952 and named after the queen due to her visit to the country in 1954. It is one of the most well known parks in the region and has a large collection of sought after animals.

The entrance to the park was about two hours away from our hotel, so once we got there, we quickly met up with the guide and got in the vehicle. It was a large pickup truck with seats loaded onto the back bed. We were not permitted to bring our own car in due to the danger from the animals, but as it turned out, it was better we went in the pickup because the mud on the dirt paths was so great that it might have been too much for our car. We were told later that two cars got stuck. 

As we drove through the park, we saw antelopes (called kobs here), elephants, waterbucks, buffalo, bush bucks, and even a leopard. The leopard is a rather elusive animal, living a solitary life and rarely being seen. We were happy we got to see them. 

We also saw some notable birds, such as the wattled lapwig, the red necked spurfowl, and the grey heron. Interestingly, this last bird was once particularly prized in Europe, especially roasted. It is said that for the celebration of George Neville becoming Archbishop of York in the fifteenth century, 400 roast herons were served to him. 

I must say, I think everyone quite enjoyed the tour. It was a cool day, overcast but not rainy. It felt nice to have the wind whipping at you as we cruised through the beautiful terrain. 

That afternoon, we visited St. Mary's School Katete. This was a school operated by a community of brothers like St. Leo's. We spoke to them, gave them some rosaries and sweets, and took pictures with them. They were quite happy for this. 

That night we slept again at Fr. Alex's parish in Mutukula. Our schedule became quite packed at the end of the day, and we ended up having to skip over some planned activities, such as spending time at a baptism celebration for a friend of Fr. Alex's in Masaka. However, we did manage to stop at Fr. George's parish in the Mbarara diocese; he is a friend of the Children's Rosary's, and we were glad to see him.

As we approached Mutukula, we realized it was quite close to midnight and we had not had Mass that day; no one, however, was willing to go to bed with no Mass, so despite the very late hour, we went into the rectory's private chapel, and Fr. Alex celebrated Mass.

It was a beautiful end to a memorable day. 

To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE

New Children's Rosary Forms at Sacred Heart School in Taftville, Connecticut

As we move through the month of the Rosary, we are excited to share new Children's Rosary groups which are launching. One of the most recent ones is at Sacred Heart School in Taftville, Connecticut USA. They had their first meeting on October 6. One hundred children will be participating weekly. A picture of the school is above.

We welcome this new Children's Rosary group!

Connecticut Catholic Men's Conference 2025

 

The Children's Rosary had a booth at the Connecticut Catholic Men's Conference in Waterbury CT on September 27. We brought with us fifty Children's Rosary flyers which we made available to the attendees. The flyers had information about the Children's Rosary with the question: could Our Blessed Mother be calling you to start a Children's Rosary in your school or parish? The men responded to our request for help in bringing flyers to post at their parishes. We left with not one flyer remaining. 

The day was full of many blessings. We saw old friends and made new ones. We also had the opportunity to meet the new Bishop of the Norwich Diocese. He responded with an open and positive attitude upon seeing our booth. He said "tell me about the Children's Rosary."  Seeing a line forming to speak to Bishop Richard Reidy I kept my explanation rather short but did give him a copy of our Children's Rosary materials and Child Consecration book. He came back to the booth rather excited to tell us that one of our endorsements for the Child Consecration book had been written by a classmate his in Rome. This was bishop John Keenan of Paisley, Scotland. They sat one row apart during their lectures. 

A special thank you to Ellen Fox who helped at the booth all day. She was an excellent addition to the team. 

Visit to Kigali Rwanda

Asher Kaufman, age 18, set out on June 28 for a yearlong trip to help spread the Children's Rosary in Europe and Africa. He spent the months of July, August and the first two weeks in September in France. He arrived in Uganda on September 15. From Uganda he traveled by car to Rwanda on September 28. Asher grew up helping the Children's Rosary and participating in it. He now is helping to spread the Children's Rosary to more parishes and schools. He is also discerning a vocation to the priesthood and has applied to the seminary through the Archdiocese of Hartford. Please keep both his trip and his vocation in your prayers. He has been sharing dispatches from the trip. 

"On Thursday, October 2, Br. Bukenya, Fr. Musoke, our driver, Kizito, and I finished our visit to Kibeho, and we spent the night at the Ghindamuyaga Benedictine monastery not far away. The monks there are quite nice and they have a magnificent property. They have their own bees, so they make their own honey. They also make their own bread and jam. These we ate the next morning at breakfast. We were able to visit with Fr. Jean Baptiste, the superior of the convent, and Fr. Venuste, a local parish priest. Both were very upbeat and positive about the Children's Rosary. They were joyful men, and I was happy to have made their acquaintance. Fr. Venuste took us to a local primary school run by a Carmelite nun whom we met with. The nun was delighted to hear of the Children's Rosary, and we made arrangements to train the teachers at the school in how to run the group. 

After these meetings, we said goodbye to this part of Rwanda for good and headed to Kigali, the capital city. We had briefly passed through here on the first day, but now we spent more time, meeting with the priest in charge of youth matters for the archdiocese, Fr. Tadeo. He also is interested in rolling out the Children's Rosary, and Br. Bukenya will be returning to provide him and his teachers with some training. 

I must say that I rather liked Kigali even though we did not see much of the city. It seemed not to be so frenetic, and it was well-organized. That night, we returned to Kabgayi, where we had slept the first night in Rwanda. This was because we had a meeting with the Bishop of Kabgayi the next day. We stayed at a hotel called the Hotel Saint Andre which is run by the diocese. We have noticed in our travels in Rwanda that there are many such hotels and guesthouses and that this seems to be a way for the dioceses to make money. We all thought it a very good idea.

The meeting with the bishop turned out to be quite nice. We had already met with Fr. Celse, the parish priest in Kabgayi, and the bishop was very open and supportive of the movement. He was happy for it to roll out in his diocese, and he also will be another stop for Br. Bukenya when he returns. 

Later that day, we returned to Kigali for a few more meetings, including with Fr. Joseph, in charge of children's matters for the archdiocese of Kigali and deputy for the whole country. He also was very interested by the movement. He works with Fr. Tadeo, so it was good that we met with both men with regards to this. I am excited for the prospects of what is to come in Kigali and the other dioceses where we stopped in Rwanda.

That night, Fr. Joseph (shown above in the striped shirt) was kind enough to put us up at a hotel run by some sisters not far from where he was staying. 

The next morning, we stopped at a school under his care to share a few words at their morning Mass to welcome them into the movement. It is at this school, I believe, where he will be starting one of the pilot groups for the archdiocese. We certainly pray his efforts are successful. 

After our brief meeting with the students, we set off for Uganda once more. I will cover the events of the rest of the day once we crossed the border in another post, but this seems like a natural place to end.

I must say that throughout our visit to Rwanda, rain was our constant companion. Some of you may recall the story from our last trip to Africa in 2019 of how at Fr. Jude Ssali's parish it began to rain while we were there and only rained within the confines of where members of the Children's Rosary lived. Not only that, but the rain was heavy and did not cause crop damage. Well, we have had much rain in Rwanda too; for instance, when we visited the bishop of Cyangugu, it rained so hard I feared even to leap from the car, as I related in another post. When we were in Kigali, it rained on more than one occasion, even though it had been dry for a long time there before our arrival. When we stayed at Kabgayi, it flooded the hallway in our hotel. Before we met with Fr. Joseph, it came down in droves again.

As we have said, rain here is considered a blessing, and perhaps this is a wonderful way to appreciate the many blessings bestowed on us during our short trip to Rwanda."

To see all of Asher's dispatches from his journey click HERE

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and Completion of the 9 Day Children's Rosary Fast

We are very grateful to all who participated in the Children's Rosary 9 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Praise God the graces have been flowing. There has been a flurry of new Children's Rosary groups forming. 

One of the members of the Children's Rosary sent this note today:

"On this last day of the prayer and fasting Novena, here is something for all of the Children's Rosary members and all those who participated in the 9 days of prayer and fasting. 
I printed the Novena petition with a picture of the Children's Rosary symbol and placed it with the Relics of St. Thérése The Little Flower (where I live happened to be the 1st stop of a Nationwide tour) asking her to hear our Novena prayers and to bless us!"