Early Missionary Work
The founding of Fort Portal Diocese was a fruit of the missionary work of the Missionaries of Africa, known as White Fathers, and of the missionary activity of Fr. Augustine Achte (Pere Akiti as he is commonly known in Tooro) who introduced the Catholic faith in Tooro and Bunyoro region.
Fr. Achte, who had first worked in Buddu- Buganda, entered Tooro through Bunyoro and set his first missionary station in Western Uganda at Bukuumi (in Bunyoro) before travelling to Tooro. He arrived at Virika on 17th November, 1895 and there founded a missionary station. This was a year after the Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries had arrived in Tooro and established a protestant mission at Kabarole Hill.
One month after his arrival at Virika, Fr. Achte was joined by Fr. Toulze. By the time Fr. Achte and Fr. Toulze came to Tooro, King Kasagama, together with the most influential persons and chiefs of the kingdom had embraced the protestant religion. The Catholic missionaries, therefore, targeted the lower class and less influential folks of Tooro.
Although King Kasagama had first welcomed the Catholic missionaries in Tooro, after his Baptism into the Church of England on 15th March, 1896 in Kampala and his return to Tooro that same year, the king became rather unfriendly to the Catholic Church. This was demonstrated by the harassment of Catholics in Tooro, and it became a setback for the mission.
Fr. Achte took recourse to Mr. Sitwell the Colonial District Commissioner of Tooro and complained of harassment by the kingdom authority. Then the situation improved. Later King Kasagama realized that the Catholic Missionaries and their religion were here to stay, and were a force to reckon with. He adopted a much friendly attitude towards the Catholic missionaries and religion.
He went to the extent of allowing the Queen Mother, Victoria Kahinju, to give a big chunk of her land at Kijanju (Virika)
The king also gave two of his children (Prince Rwakatale and Princess Nkwenge) to be baptized in the Catholic faith; he as well allowed some of his relatives to become Catholics.
Whereas the king had been so generous and friendly to the Catholic missionaries the situation was not that easy elsewhere in the kingdom.
It was quite hard to find land for establishing other Catholic Church missions until the colonial administration took away power from the local chiefs. It was then that the Catholic Church could acquire land and register it with the colonial Government, establish new churches and spread without hindrance.
