“We were in adoration”: Mum of Ugandan-born Bishop-elect in U.S. Recalls Breaking News of Son’s Episcopal Appointment

“I had ... four boys and 10 girls. Two boys have passed,” she recounted, and further disclosed that her remaining two sons have been serving the people of God as Priests, the Bishop-elect and Fr. Bernard Martin Aeko of the Catholic Diocese of Soroti in Uganda.

“In our prayers as family, we needed a Priest,” she says in the video recording in which she recalls the close relationship her family had with the late Local Ordinary of Uganda’s Tororo Catholic Archdiocese, Archbishop James Odongo.

She explained, “I was admiring the late Bishop Odongo. He was our best friend. They were twins, and both became Priests, and later one was promoted to Bishop.”

“God wanted me to see this day,” Mrs. Aeko says in the video recording, explaining those behind his son’s untimely killing last year had attempted to kill her, one of them having gained access to her bedroom. 

She goes on to recall the challenges the Bishop-elect faced in his journey to the Priesthood, including not being shortlisted among the applicants to join the Major Seminary in Uganda.

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She recalled her son’s focus on further studies at a Ugandan university, employment in a government entity, and “then joined the Charismatic Renewal”.

“He became the Coordinator of the Archdiocese of Kampala’s Charismatic Renewal,” Ms. Aeko recalled, a role she said made him travel out of Uganda, eventually resulting in his encounter with an American Catholic Bishop.

The American Bishop developed keen interest in Simon Peter, reigniting in him the desire to serve the people of God as a Priest, Ms. Aeko said about her son, who is set to succeed the late Bishop Mario Eduardo Dorsonville-Rodríguez, who passed on in January 2024 aged 63. 

In the YouTube video recording published June 7, Dennis Okwi, a school mate of Bishop-elect Simon Peter, expresses joy that St. Aloysius Primary School has produced two Bishops. “As the old boys of St. Aloysius, we are happy that we have again received a second Bishop,” Mr. Okwi says. 

Born in August 1971 in Ngora, Uganda, the Bishop-elect attended St. Peter Minor Seminary in Soroti and St. Peter College in Tororo, Uganda. He later joined Makerere University, where he obtained a degree in Political Science and Public Administration.

He pursued a Master’s in Business Administration from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands, and later relocated to the U.S., where he was enrolled at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans for philosophy and theology; he obtained a Master of Divinity.

In his speech following the news of his appointment, Mons. Simon Peter, who has been serving as Diocesan Administrator of the same U.S. See, said the news “literally left me speechless”.

“At that moment, I was speechless. After an awkward while with the Nuncio, I could only think of the experience of Blessed Mother at the annunciation. The scriptures relate that she was deeply troubled,” he said in a video recording published on June 6.

Like the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Bishop-elect said, “I felt the weight of unworthiness and the mystery of a call far greater than anything I could have imagined or prepared for. I'm humbled; humbled beyond words that the Holy Father has chosen me not from outside but from among the ranks of the Priests of this great Diocese.”

“I did not expect this. I did not seek it, and certainly I do not deserve it. Nevertheless, I place my trust in the one who calls as I echo Mary's response, ‘be it done unto me according to your word,’” he said.

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Referring to the prayer of the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Magnificat, the Bishop-elect said, “I give thanks to God for the gift of life, for the call to the Priesthood, and now for this new and sacred calling to apostolic ministry.”

Once consecrated and installed, Mons. Peter will be the sixth Local Ordinary of the U.S. Episcopal See that was erected in March 1977, having been carved out from the New Orleans Catholic Archdiocese.

The Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux measures 9,065 square kilometers. It has a population of 258,300, with 114,600 Catholics representing 44.4 percent, according to  2023 statistics.

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