The role of the Catholic Church in promoting democracy in Lira Municipality in the light of the apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Africa (112).

Abstract

The Catholic Church in Lira Municipality seems not to be making a qualitative contribution to the promotion of Democracy in Lira Municipality; this is because some of the Catholic Church leaders seem to be silent on most of the political and democratic problems faced by the citizens of Lira Municipality. Yet Pastoral the Letter of the Catholic Bishops of Uganda on the general elections in Uganda (2010, p. 9) notes that, the Church has a right by virtue of her mission to remain critical of all social order to ensure that the dignity of the human person is respected and defended at every moment in time, that is; the promotion of the human dignity and equality of people’s human rights and participation in politics. According to the above magisterial teaching, the role of the Catholic Church in promoting democracy is clearly defined, but from the above, the liberative and democratic mission which is ideal seem to be lacking in the Catholic Church in Lira Municipality and so there is need to find out solidly whether the Catholic Church is playing any role in promoting democracy in Lira Municipality. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to find out the Role of the Catholic Church in promoting democracy in Lira Municipality. In this research, the researcher basically addressed the fundamental issues regarding the Catholic Church and democracy as a system of governance, the meaning of the Catholic Church and democracy, different types of democracy, the role of the Catholic Church and other institutions in the promoting democracy, the causes of failure of democracy in Lira Municipality. The researcher reviewed many theological and non theological literatures that helped me to clearly come out with the role of the Catholic Church in promoting democracy; He also managed to come out with the role of other institutions in promoting democracy. Methodology used: Population sampling techniques, Purposive sampling, Focus group. I also used Research instruments: Observation, Interview guide, Questionnaire, He distributed 196 questionnaires, and 176 were returned, while 20 were not returned. Meaning 92% of the distributed questionnaires were returned and 8% were not. From the above one can conclude that the return was very good. In Chapter four the researcher analyzed the collected data and presented it following the research objectives in chapter one. In discussing the findings, having seen that poverty, election malpractices, intimidations/threats, militarism, disunity, ignorance have disrupted the promotion of democracy in Lira Municipality. The researcher came out with the following recommendations: that the Catholic Church should come up to promote democracy by fully engaging in the following: The Electoral Commission, proper national constitution, Security, Media/press, Electorates, Economics, unity. The researcher concluded that, the misunderstanding that the Catholic Church is not promoting democracy came because many people in Lira Municipality do not understand what the Catholic Church Means, for them the Catholic Church is limited only to the leaders of the Church. But this research has given a broader meaning of the Catholic Church, hence breaking the gap and showing further that, the Catholic Church is entirely involved in the promotion of democracy.