June 7, 2015: Friar Edward led the thousands who gathered for the Eucharistic Procession on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi), at St. Francis Catholic Church in Matugga, Uganda. At the 10:00 am Mass that day, 200 children received First Eucharist.

This summer (2015), Friar Edward Wambua Mulwa, OFM Conv. is one of four international Order of Friar Minor Conventual Franciscan (OFM Conv.) friars, from missions in Russia, Uganda and Ghana, assisting our Province Mission Advancement Office‘s 2015 Mission Appeal season. All Mission funds gathered in the 2015 appeals will be contributed to the needs and ministries of the friars of their home provinces. The four international friars visited, lived with, heard Confessions and celebrated Mass at more than 20 different parish communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. They also had the opportunity to spend quality time with their Our Lady of the Angels Province brothers while visiting many of our friaries during their stay in the United States. A Missionary in Russia, Friar Dariusz Harasimowicz, OFM Conv. was with us for 5 weeks of service before returning to St. Petersburg, where he has discovered that the young Church there can be reached through the modern liturgical music he writes and records. Friar Andrej Buko, OFM Conv., also a Missionary in Russia, will finish out this year’s summer appeals.  Friar Emmanuel Acquaye, OFM Conv. (Ghana) lives in an Our Lady of the Angels Province friary while studying at Loyola University Maryland – Baltimore, MD. He has preached at several parish locations during the 2014 and 2015 summer months, including local Baltimore parish, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church; one if the newest parishes in our province ministry family. In 2014, he aided Ugandan Missionary, Friar Boguslaw Dabrowski, OFM Conv., and together they reached eighteen parish communities, during a very busy and productive summer.

May 6, 2015: Friar Boguslaw (right) joins in breaking ground on the construction of a new Franciscan presence in Kampala-Uganda, the Munyonyo Martyrs’ Shrine, while Friar Edward holds the umbrella.