The first Missionaries Giuseppe Zambonardi and Fronassa arrived in Arua, then the headquarters of West Nile from Moyo in February 1918 and were accommodated at Ediofe where they prayed and later settled to start their Christian Mission.
Bishop Sabino Odoki, the bishop of Arua Diocese says the decision to visit the refugee came directly from the pope who says the president of the academy must share the word of God with the refugees before he departs for Rome.
As the church prepares to bury Frederick Bishop Drandua inside Ediofe Cathedral in Arua town, it has emerged that the bishop told some of the relatives while at Nsambya hospital to bury him in Ullepi, off Arua-Nebbi road. Ullepi is in Nebbi Diocese, not Arua.
Earlier in the day, information had filtered in that the current bishop of Arua, Sabino Odoki, had directed that his predecessor be buried either outside the cathedral, or at St. Kizito Orphanage Centre which he founded. This angered many youths at Ediofe who threatened to go on strike.
A disagreement has emerged between Arua Catholic Bishop Sabino Ocan Odoki and a section of priests and members of the laity who accuse him of corruption and witch hunting priests.
A total of 110 couples on Saturday exchanged vows in Metu Catholic Parish, Moyo Vicariate in Arua Diocese. The mass wedding, part of the celebrations to mark 100 years of Catholic faith in West Nile, was presided over by retired Bishop of Arua, Frederic Drandua.
The Arua Chief Magistrate’s Court has for the third time remanded a Catholic priest attached to Arua Diocese over allegations of defiling and impregnating a 16 year old girl. This comes just a day after High Court in Arua sentenced another priest, Fr. Santos Constatino Wapokura from Pakwach catholic parish in Nebbi Diocese, to ten years imprisonment for defiling a 15 year old girl.
