Former retired Arch Bishop of the Church of Uganda is once again back in the news after adamantly failing to honour his commitment to care for his child stirred out of wedlock, while th3 church continues to shield him.
The retired Church of Uganda (COU) supremo was engulfed in a bizarre infidelity controversy after it emerged that he had had an affair with a married woman with whom he sired a child.
At the tip of dust rising saga, Ntagali is reported to have denied paternity to the offspring with his secret lover Judith Tukamuhabwa and demanded a paternity test which would later indicate a 99.9 per cent match between the Archbishop and the now 3-year-old Taji Ntagali.
To the helpless Tukamuhabwa whose situation had been complicated beyond measure by the trickery of the man of God, she thought the DNA results would give her some relief as she now expected Ntagali to at least extend some routine assistance in child support.
To the dismay of many, her frantic calls, emails and text messages to the Bishop have never been replied over two years after the DNA tests.
Depressed and out of hope, she opted to seek the intervention of the Church of Uganda to whom she claims to have written countless emails and letters without ever responding to any.
” Christian greetings to you your Grace. It is with a heavy heart that I have been compelled to write to you once again ( refer to my previous mail dated 24, 10, 2021)
already with you to intervene in the matter of your predecessor Bishop Stanely Ntagali who is a former Archbishop of COU with whom I had a love affair over a sustained period that resulted in a child whom he has denied as father irrespective of a scientific paternity test that proved up to 99.9% that he is the father of the child, “Judith’s letter to the Archbishop in part.
She reports that from birth, she has had to fend for her child single single-handedly without even a diaper from Bishop Ntagali.
The silence of the Church whose senior member sinned with a junior member has been too provoking for Judith to continue putting up with.
In one of the letters written to the reigning Archbishop, Dr Kazimba, and seen by this publication, Judith has appealed to the church to intervene to help her innocent son who has no part in the misdeeds of his parent.
She contends that even as she continues to suffer rejection from society and has to starve with her children, her accomplice in crime and main offender continues to live on a fat purse on the sponsorship of the church.
“I don’t know why the church seems to judge me as the bad one who tempted Mr Ntagali, a man over 30 years older than me at the time!” Judith wonders.
Following the saga going public in 2020, Ms Tukamuhabwa says she has never received any phycological support from the church although she is a church member.
Even as the ban on Kazimba’s priesthood presumably remains in place, the disgraced cleric has publicly attended church events with the most recent one being at the consecration of the new Bishop of North Karamoja over the weekend.
” Even though Ntagali promised me a lot of things back in the days, I have since forgotten all he told me and I am only appealing for support for our son to live a life like his other siblings.” she appeals.
According to a letter dated January 13, 2021, from the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Most. Rev. Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, the shame-faced retired Archbishop Ntagali has been accused of having an extra-marital affair with a married woman, an accusation he acknowledged.
“This adultery is a grievous betrayal on many levels. Retired Archbishop Ntagali has betrayed his Lord and Saviour, his wife and their marriage vows, as well as the faith of many Ugandans and global Christians who looked up to him to live the faith he proclaimed,” the letter sent to the Anglican Bishops under the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) reads in part.
Kaziimba added that the Church of Uganda which has approximately 13 million members, all of whom have ‘sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,’ as the Bible reads in Romans 3:23 but the Church would hold Kazimba to a higher degree of accountability due t ok the magnitude of his role in the hierarchy of the church.
In the same letter, Kazimba announced that his disgraced predecessor had been suspended and that he would not be allowed to perform any priestly duties such as preaching, function sacramental or represent the Church of Uganda in any way until further notice.
Kaziimba also urged the Church of Uganda to send prayers to the spouses in both relationships, for repentance and healing in those who have committed adultery and for justice and forgiveness to flow.
“This is not a time for us to gossip. This is a time for repentance; a time for prayer; a time to examine our own sin and failings in humility; and a time to make all our relationships right before God,” Kaziimba said.
“No one is above God’s law. We call on all who have fallen short of this standard to go before the Lord in prayer and confess your sin, repent of your ways, and make restitution to those you have hurt,” Kaziimba added.
And indeed, Natagali confessed his transgression and implored the church to pardon him.
Ntagali, 65, was the 8th Archbishop of the Church of Uganda before handing over to Kazimba on March 1, 2020, after clocking the retirement age.
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