{"id":21435,"date":"2015-11-27T01:15:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T01:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/uganda-top-candidates-pile-requests-to-pope\/"},"modified":"2015-11-27T01:14:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-27T01:14:23","slug":"uganda-top-candidates-pile-requests-to-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/uganda-top-candidates-pile-requests-to-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Uganda:Top candidates pile requests to Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Presidential candidates yesterday halted campaigns to join in welcoming Pope Francis who jets into the country this evening, filling the Pontiff\u2019s plate with a list of personal and political wishes.}<\/p>\n

President Museveni, who is running to extend his tenure to 35 years, said he will ask the Holy Father to promote Uganda\u2019s tourism internationally and bless \u201cpolitical martyrs\u201d – euphemism for individuals killed in the country\u2019s liberation struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I need from the Pope is publicity for our tourism. Some people do not know Uganda is a land of martyrs. I am going to ask him [Pope Francis] to bless the political martyrs as well,\u201d Mr Museveni said.<\/p>\n

He was speaking at a press conference at Morulinga State Lodge in Napak District yesterday.
\nThe President and Pope Francis will meet again at State House, Entebbe, shortly after the latter\u2019s expected arrival at 4:50pm this evening.<\/p>\n

The FDC presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, said: \u201cI hope that Pope Francis will indeed use this visit to pray for our country, but also to directly engage with the rulers about the [need] to have justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pope\u2019s visit comes in the third week of campaigns in Uganda for election of a president on February 18, 2016.
\nUganda is at \u201ca critical time when we have a lot of uncertainty because of the 30-year rule of Mr Museveni,\u201d Dr Besigye, a former personal physician to the President, said.<\/p>\n

The Opposition leader in a message intended for the Pope, added: \u201cHe has distinguished himself by his humility and his quest to advance causes of peace and dialogue where there is conflict.\u201d
\nHe said the papal visit in the middle of the election campaign should offer Ugandans an opportunity to reflect on the things the global leader of the 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide is most passionate about; social justice, service to the poor and underprivileged, peace, care for nature and equality.<\/p>\n

In Gulu, Go Forward presidential candidate, Mr Amama Mbabazi, said he will be at Namugongo tomorrow for the Pontiff\u2019s main Mass irrespective of whether he gets an official invite. Mr Mbabazi is also a former prime minister.
\nOn the sidelines of his press conference in Gulu, Mr Mbabazi said although he is not yet aware of any official invitation, he will be in Namungongo.<\/p>\n

Lira Diocesan Bishop Joseph Franzelli, head of communication for the papal visit organising committee, on Wednesday said all Opposition leaders had been invited.<\/p>\n

Mr Mbabazi yesterday said: \u201cI think the invitation is public, I will go and join the masses. We have, therefore, put on hold our campaign in order to receive the Pope, we the leadership and our supporters all to go and show how delighted they are.\u201d
\nAt the presser, Mr Mbabazi had sent out a message on the Pope\u2019s visit, saying it is an opportunity for prayer, especially at this critical political time.<\/p>\n

Reported by Yasiin Mugerwa, Eriasa Sserunjogi, Isaac Imaka, John Okot, Steven Arion, Julius Ocungi & Nelson Wesonga.<\/p>\n

\"http:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/News\/National\/Top-candidates-pile-requests-to-Pope\/-\/688334\/2973884\/-\/m578g9\/-\/index.html\"<\/figure>\n

SOURCE:DAILY MONITOR:[Top candidates pile requests to Pope->http:\/\/www.monitor.co.ug\/News\/National\/Top-candidates-pile-requests-to-Pope\/-\/688334\/2973884\/-\/m578g9\/-\/index.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Presidential candidates yesterday halted campaigns to join in welcoming Pope Francis who jets into the country this evening, filling the Pontiff\u2019s plate with a list of personal and political wishes.} President Museveni, who is running to extend his tenure to 35 years, said he will ask the Holy Father to promote Uganda\u2019s tourism internationally and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2481],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-monitor"],"bylines":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2481,"name":"DAILY MONITOR","slug":"daily-monitor","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070423,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21435.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21435.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21435.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21435.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21435.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21435.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21435"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21435"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}