Saint-Maurice vibre aux sonorités du continent noir
The church of Saint-Sigismond and the Abbey of Saint-Maurice, vibrated on Sunday 3 June 2018 to the sounds of Africa in a colourful and festive atmosphere not usually found in these sacred places. The pilgrims sang along the Grand-Rue of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune and went in procession to the basilica to attend the mass presided over by Mgr Pier Giacomo Grampa, Bishop Emeritus of Lugano.Around 350 people, mainly Africans from all over Switzerland, took part in the 17th edition of the traditional Pilgrimage to the Saints of Africa. Entitled "The Courage of a Committed Faith", this year's pilgrimage was dedicated to St. Charles Lwanga and his 21 companions, martyrs of Uganda, who were put to death on 3 June 1886 by King Mwanga. During this persecution of Ugandan Christians, 22 Catholics and 23 Anglicans were martyred for refusing to deny their faith.
"I dream of a world without war and without borders...
Welcomed in the morning by the "pilgrimage hymn" - "I dream of a world, I dream of a world without war and without borders... I walk for peace" - the participants were able to hear the testimony of Father Gérard Chabanon, who was Superior General of the White Fathers from 2004 to 2010, but also a missionary in Tanzania and Uganda. A great connoisseur of the lives of the Ugandan martyrs, he recalled that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of new Christians", recalling the words of Tertullian, an emblematic figure of the Christian community of Carthage in the first centuries.The missionary noted that before the arrival of the White Fathers in Uganda, Islam was already present in the country and that the Anglicans had just arrived. The first Christian was sentenced to death and executed in 1885. When he was about 25 years old, Charles Lwanga, chief page in the king's court, baptised some of his brothers, encouraging them to keep their faith, despite the fate that awaited them. On 3 June 1886, 32 young men, pages in the court of King Mwanga II of Buganda, were burnt alive in Namugongo, a suburb of Kampala. "They sowed the seed of the Christian faith throughout the region," he said.
Uganda's martyrs fertilise the whole region
"This Sunday, June 3, there are at least one million pilgrims in Namugongo. Devotion to the martyrs of Uganda, canonised by Pope Paul VI on 18 October 1964, towards the end of the Council, is not waning. They come from all the dioceses of Uganda, some from neighbouring countries. They may walk for a week, ten days, fifteen days... They make a real pilgrimage, going forward in prayer to the place of martyrdom! After the teaching given by Father Chabanon, a good number of pilgrims received the sacrament of reconciliation.Greeting the pilgrims, Bishop Grampa, who is a great friend of Africa, found the words to enthuse them. For more than two decades, he has regularly visited Ethiopia, where he supports projects run by the Salesians and the Capuchins. Eliciting you-you from the crowd, he urged them to continue "dancing the dance of life, following the music of life, which is none other than Jesus!"
"Dance the dance of life!"
With his colourful and warm language, the Bishop Emeritus of Lugano stressed that Jesus was by no means "an antique" or an outdated value. He then called on the faithful gathered near the martyrs' chapel which contains the relics of St Maurice - and also those of Charles Lwanga, which a few years ago were in the chapel of the Africanum in Fribourg - to follow his commandments, which are made up of love, generosity, self-giving but also sacrifice.
For the first time, among the African choirs from Switzerland who came to Valais, the African choir Saint-Augustin from Moutier was present, accompanying the regulars: the African Choir of Fribourg (CAF), the Cantique des Anges and the Eritrean Choir of Fribourg, the Afrika's friends of Jesus Choir (Geneva), those of Notre-Dame de Neuchâtel, Bonne Espérance (from the Capverdians of Romont and Moudon), Sainte-Famille (Zurich), St-Joseph (Jura) and Sacré-Coeur (Basle).