Kampala, Uganda: Uganda Law Society (ULS) President, Adv. Isaac Ssemakadde paid a moving tribute to the late Pope Francis on Thursday, describing him as a fellow radical and “a revolutionary clothed in humility,” whose global legacy of inclusion, justice, and defiance against oppression mirrors the Radical New Bar’s legal activism in Uganda.
In a powerful eulogy dated April 24, Ssemakadde, a renowned human rights activist in Uganda, praised Pope Francis not only as a spiritual leader but as a moral insurgent who rattled the Catholic Church’s foundations in pursuit of justice for the poor, refugees, prisoners, and marginalized minorities.
“We are not radicals of chaos, but of conscience, men who saw the world as it was and dared to imagine it anew,” Ssemakadde wrote in an eulogy delivered by his Vice Anthony Asiimwe, who represented him as the Bar hosted the VP Jessica Alupo, and members of the two Catholic Congregations affiliated to the ULS, Catholic Lawyers Society International (CLSI), and the Uganda Catholic Lawyers’ Society (UCLS) on Thursday afternoon.
In a mirror of his own defiance of Uganda’s political and judicial establishment, the ULS Chief compared his outspoken brand of legal advocacy with the Pope’s unorthodox papacy.
“I have not wielded a crozier, but a sceptre, a sceptre (omugo) which I have banged with fury against the tables of corruption, oppression, and indifference that choke my nation,” he said.
Ssemakadde, writing from exile, called the pontiff’s death “a wound to the world” but insisted that his legacy “remains a blazing torch.”
He praised Francis’s confrontational stances on capitalism, climate change, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and Church wealth, saying “his voice thundered against the excesses of capitalism…a machine that grinds the bones of the poor to dust while the rich feast.”
Thursday’s eulogy was also a reaffirmation of Ssemakadde’s personal mission to lead what he calls the “Radical New Bar,” a legal movement focused on dismantling systems of inequality and institutional corruption.
The RNB Boss invoked VISION 2060, a long-term agenda for legal and societal reform in Uganda. “Pope Francis banged the table of a Church steeped in tradition; I banged the table of a legal system mired in corruption,” Ssemakadde wrote, adding, “We lit fires in the hearts of others, proving that one voice, rooted in conviction, can spark a revolution.”
“I urge you to challenge the conventions that bind us, whether in faith, in law, or in life. Let us be unafraid to bang the table, to weep for the suffering, to fight for the dream of a world where every soul is seen, every voice is heard.”
Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, died this week, prompting worldwide reflection on his decade-long tenure as a pontiff who prioritized mercy, social equity, and environmental stewardship.
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