He therefore did not stay for long in Ngora but entrusted all that he had started into the hands of a catechist (Xavier F., Okello, The beginnings of Evangelization in Eastern Uganda-1895-1924: An Effort undertaken by the Mill Hill Missionaries of St Joseph Society, London- The Mill Hill Missionaries, doctoral dissertation, Roma 2007, p. 152-153).
Laying of the strong foundation for Catholicism in Teso 'When Bishop Hanlon with Father Kirk visited Ngora in 1909, they met the catechist but no catechumen.
Bishop Hanlon told Father Kirk to work up Ngora catechumenate with a good catechist but look for another site.
Kirk had established a catechumenate at Ngora in 1908 which remained only a temporary site until 1912 with Dunne in charge and Father Morris as assistant.
He arrived there on 12 March 1912, and showed great enterprise encouraging the use of plough among the Teso, teaching them to use the yoke and was the first to undertake the burning of bricks" (Tom Tuma, Phares Mutibwa, A Century of Christianity in Uganda; 1877-1975: Nairobi, Uzima Ltd.,1978, p. 54).
The school has been nurtured by Fr Lawrence Larry Akepa every enthusiastic and 'no-nonsense' priest, formally Rector of St Peter's Minor Seminary Madera.
During 1917 Kiggen built a double storied burnt-brick house of eight rooms with a tiled roof, all done with money he had begged from home.
"Ngora is a very unhealthy station: and our hope is that this fine new dwelling house will improve the health of the Fathers" (Cf., O’Neil, p. 84).
Madera-Soroti Saint Patrick Mission Madera was opened by Father John Dunne in 1914 near Soroti town along the Karamoja road.
"At the time Madera was opened, the district around Ngora, Kumi and Soroti was known by the British Administration and missionaries as Bukedi, and the language was called Lukedi.
As far as they knew, there was a different people called the Iteso who lived to the north of the Komulo swamp although they had no real presence there" (Ibid.)
He wrote to Mathews from Tiriri in July that he planned to go the following week to Kalaki and Lwala and "round the Kumam district".
Father Hugo Verkaaik has to be made mention of in relation to Madera the second parish to be opened in the diocese because of making it what it is now.
"Madera had a large church well built, but still with a clay floor, which every week had to worked with thinned cow dung.
Slowly but surely a cement floor was laid in the church and then very soon furnished with benches, just seats and kneelers" (O’Neil, p. 264).
"At baptism time, Jurgens recalled that Madera had large groups of Catechumens in preparation, many in Teso, but also numbers in Kumam.
He was disappointed that the two Teso missionsat Ngora and Soroti were not doing well, with the number of catechumens falling considerably, he wrote that the stations were young yet, and it often takes two years before such people are in real earnest about instruction" (O’Neil, p. 86).
However, on his very first attendance at Soroti he was welcomed by a beating: the catechist "gave him a good knock on the head saying, 'you should not be absent so often, I have not seen you for a long time" (Okello).
In relation to the above, when I talked to one of the elders in my parish an old man called 'Ateka' who received baptism from Ngora, he confessed that some of the catechumens who could not bear being beaten usually left.
"Bishop Erasmus Wandera was born at Dabani, in Tororo Diocese, on 16 April 1930, and was baptized by Father Henry Roemele.