The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-08-15
THE WORK OF THE FRANCISCAN
SISTERS IN UGANDA.


In connection with the visit of the
Uganda Princes to England fresh in
terest has been aroused in the Catho-
lie missions in that country that have
been so exceedingly fruitful in good
results.
A special mention, therefore, seems
in place of the splendid work which
is being quietly done by the Francis
can Sisters from st. Mary's Abbey,
Mill Hill, London, amongst the native
population. 1t is now some twelve
years ago that, at the repeatedly ex-
pressed wish of the late Cardinal
Vaughan, the first Sisters sailed for
East Africa. Up till then no English
community was represented in
Uganda, and pressing need was felt
for English Sisters to start schools
and hospitals in connection with the
mission of the English Fathers from
d. st. Josephs College, Mill Hill.
The story of the founding of the
community and Of the difficulties en-
countered and surmounted, of the
opening of the hospitals at Nsambya,
and of the schools there and at Ma
galama, that now number an attend
ance of nearly a thousand children,
is one of the most successful records
of devoted enterprise in missionary
annals. No better testimony to this
fact, and to the affection and esteem
in which the Sisters are universally
held by the natives, can be given than
in Prince Joseph of Uganda's own
words, on the occasion of his recent
visit to st. Mary's Abbey. After
abiding in the warmest- terms of
gratitude to- the kindness shown to
his people by the Sisters, and the
greatness of their work in schools and
hospitals, he concluded by telling the
assembled school-children that he
could wish them nothing better than,
when they grew up, they might become
Sisters of st. Mary's and go out to
Uganda.
In the Busoga country, just beyond
the Uganda territory, and under
British Protectorate, remote and
isolated, lies the mission station OF
Kamuli, Of which Ginia is the nearest
post Office. The district is thickly
populated, and with the exception of
some 200 converts the natives are all
heathens, and not over friendly to
the white men," Nine years ago the
mission was founded by the Fathers
from st. Joseph's College, but it has
been uphill work, and very little or
no progress has been made in the
conversion of the women and girls.
The whole population is engaged in
the cotton-growing industry, in which
they work either for themselves, or,
more generally, to sell their crops to
the Indian traders who supply the cot
ton-trade. The Busoga are at present
a very low type Of native, very I'M
friendly, and exceedingly shy and sus-
picious.
In the dilemma in which the Fathers
found themselves placed, an appeal
was again made to the Franciscan
Sisters, and, last February Sister Mar
celia, who had been in charge of the
schools at, Nsambya for some years,
together with trained nursing Sister
and one other, started for the mission
to open hospital and school.
Sitting comfortably at home, it may
be difficult to realise the peculiar
hardships and privations such mis-
sion involves, and which only spirit
of pure charity and self-sacrifice
could face at all. To such spirit,
however, the appeal is irresistible
an appeal from thousands of helpless
heather women and girls whose lot is
no better than that of animals, and
5 who are ignorant of everything that
sisterly sympathy and help can mean
nor them.