Why Bishop Emeritus Wandera will be buried inside Church

By yesterday, there were a series of activity both within and outside Immaculate Conception Cathedral church, the headquaters of Soroti Catholic Diocese.

Inside the church, a series of activities, including grave construction are ongoing.

This crypt will be a final resting place for Bishop Emeritus of Soroti Catholic Diocese Erasmus Desiderius Wandera who died on December 8, 2022 at his residence in Mbale City.

He will be laid to rest on Tuesday with Holy Mass starting at 11:00AM and will be presided by His Grace Emmanuel Obbo AJ the Archbishop of Tororo Archdiocese who was also his successor before he was appointed to head the Archdiocese.

This designated burial location is inside the Cathedral, on the right-hand side.

Why Bishop Wandera will be buried inside the Church?

Bishops are priests that supervise the clergy in the diocese. They are always elected by the pope. When a Bishop is dead he is buried in a crypt inside the church ( Cathedral).

Many people really wonder why the Catholic Bishops and Cardinals are buried in the church.

In the book, making sense of saints, an author Patricia Ann Kasten wrote that, ” the early churches were built near or above the grave of the faithful or martyrs with physical Cathedral structure.”

Over the years there have been closed relationship between the remains of the saints and martyrs with a physical Cathedral structure. In 787, the second council of nicaea, a Catholic sitting, it was decreed that all new cathedrals to be built with crypts inside where the saints would be placed.

In Rome Italy, St Peter Basilica in Vatican, the capital city of Catholic Church, this is sometimes called a necropolis. This is because the human bones have been found in the hollows and crevices in the foundation of the church.

These bones and remains are believed to that of Simon Peter, the most loving discipline of Jesus, who is considered as the first pope of Catholic Church, whom Jesus Christ Himself gave him the keys of Hades and heaven.

Also, another saints by name St Thomas Aquinas, back in 13th century said, ” we should show honor to the saints of God.Therefore in memory of them, we ought to honor their remains in a fitting manner.”

He was buried in the underground chamber at the Basilica where he served as the bishop.

This is according to the Catholic tradition of burying their bishops in crypts below the cathedrals they served.

All over the world, crypts are built to honour the practices of the Catholic church. Only Bishops who served in that particular cathedral is worthy of being buried in that crypt and also retired priests.

Why are crypts built?

Over the years there has been a nexus between the remains of holy men and the physical cathedral structure.

This Nicaean decree continued for more than 1,000 years before it was considered not compulsory, however, it is still desirable amongst believers.

For the Catholic church, this concept of building crypts was drawn from the persecution of Christians and the believers who were buried in these caves when they died. The faithful have preserved this tradition to date.

Compiled by John Ogulei