Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, had just ended his visit to the Catholic hospitals in the cities of Gulu, Kalongo and Kitgum.
«The cardinal was extremely upset by what he saw,» Father Tarcisio Pazzaglia, a Comboni missionary in Kitgum, told the Missionary Service News Agency.
«He was able to witness the poverty, the suffering and the fear of the population in northern Uganda. Like all those who come to see for themselves what is going on, the cardinal was horrified and shocked,» the missionary said.
However, the cardinal did not fail to note the good conditions of the hospital structures despite the poverty, and the violence of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has tormented the local population for 18 years.
«In Kalongo, Cardinal Lozano Barragán witnessed the arrival of two injured people, who had fallen into a rebel ambush on the road between Kalongo and Patongo; and so he had a chance to see for himself the daily tragedy experienced by these people,» Father Pazzaglia said.
