Scholar who has written on synodality, teen pregnancy, suffering to lead Ugandan diocese
July 16, 2026
Pope Leo XIV appointed Father Bonaventure Gubazire, M.Afr., rector of the Missionaries of Africa’s formation house in Enju, Ghana, as the new bishop of Kabale. The Ugandan diocese is the priest’s diocese of birth.
An author of several journal articles (Academia, ResearchGate), Father Gubazire is also the author of Communitarian cultures and the challenge of liberal human rights: Reflections from an African perspective, a book published in 2014 and available in several American university libraries (WorldCat).
In “Teenage Pregnancy and the Culture of Silence on Sexuality in Ghana: Some Ethical and Educational Considerations,” a 2023 journal article, Father Gubazire and his coauthors wrote:
There is a need to prudently break the culture of silence on matters of sexuality by introducing in educational establishments an “appropriate” sex education for young people. This study modestly recommends what is termed “humancentric sex education” that aims [among other things] at awakening in young people a sense of moral consciousness and accountability. The discussion holds that a morally-awakened conscience is likely to empower teenagers to say “NO” to compromising sexual relations which, quite often, culminate in unwanted pregnancies ...
Premarital sexual relations are largely tolerated. Several factors are to blame including the cultural influence of some liberal movements from the Western world as well as the current promotion and distribution of contraceptives among teenagers. Rather than letting teenagers get drowned in the streams of the time, educators at all levels, in collaboration with their parents or guardians, should set ethical limits and seriously challenge young people to know that they are morally accountable to both their inner conscience and the community to which they belong.
In another 2023 journal article, “Clericalism and Synodality: Towards a Listening Church through an African Ethics of Ubuntu,” Father Gubazire cited Pope Francis, as well as American authors Father Richard John Neuhaus and Russell Shaw, in his critique of clericalism. As he called for a spirituality of listening, Father Gubazire wrote:
Synodality as a way of being church does not seek to confuse the different roles and ministries within the church. Clerics still have a particular service reserved for them by their ordination, especially the administration of sacraments and other pastoral needs. Likewise, the role of the faithful (non-clerics) should not be limited to participation in liturgical activities only ... Without claiming equality with clerics or seeking to override their ministerial responsibilities, the faithful can joyously assume their duties as collaborators in the mission of Christ.
In a 2021 journal article, “Evil and Meaningful Existence: A Humanistic Response through the Lens of Classical Theism,” Father Gubazire wrote:
While the conviction that God has a hand in whatever happens in the Universe might give a sense of strength, comfort and hope to most believers, it nonetheless arouses ethical or humanistic concerns. Would it really make sense to tell someone tormented by intense and dehumanising pain, for instance, those starving in refugee camps or an elderly widow who has just lost her only son, that God deliberately intends her agony to allow her to attain a higher level of moral or spiritual growth? It feels existentially and pastorally awkward to confidently justify dehumanising evils in terms of God’s divine wisdom and love for humanity.
But could there be another approach to the problem of evil that would loyally supplement classical theodicies without justifying evil, appeal to non-believers in God, and respond to the concrete situation of gratuitous human suffering? This study modestly proposes a humanistic response expressed through the African ethics of Ubuntu.
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