MASAKA –The Uganda Natural Chemotherapeutics Research Institute – NCRI has committed to advance the late Bro Fr Anatooli Wasswa’s herbal medicine development.
Dr Grace Nambatya -the Director of Research at NCRI said clinical trials would be carried out on the late Anatooli’s herbal medicine combinations with a view to preserving his knowledge and promoting the use of natural therapies for various illnesses.
Dr Nambatya made pledged on Monday during the burial of the late Bro Fr Anatooli at the cemetery of the congregation of Brothers of St Charles Lwanga at Kiteredde in Kyotera district. The Catholic priest who died on Tuesday last week has for over six decades been developing traditional herbal medicines – to treat different diseases in several parts of the country.
Before his death, Br Anatooli was operating herbal clinics in Kyotera district; Kibuye in Kampala; and Nyamitanga in Mbarara – attending to thousands of patients would later claim to have got cured.
Dr Nambatya revealed at the burial that several people had separately confessed how their various health complications had healed after taking Br Anatoli’s concoctions – the need to preserve his knowledge and legacy through working towards the advancement of what he had discovered.
She revealed that her institute was going to take up the responsibility of enriching the deceased’s herbal medicines through the testing all of them for efficacy, and eventually promoting their use for purposes of growing the natural chemotherapy industry.
Besides practicing herbal medicine, Bro Anatooli was also famous for using Christian evangelical teachings to demystify witchcraft and sorcery practices in the community.
In his teachings, the deceased openly counteracted witchdoctors for conning unsuspecting clients who would go to them for supernatural healing, even when they are suffering from common sicknesses such as malaria, measles, and pneumonia among others.
The Archbishop of Kampala Archdiocese, His Grace Paul Ssemogerere eulogised the deceased as a multitalented-dedicated priest who served both spiritual and physical human beings. He described the deceased as a spiritually strong priest who has dared the devil in all his vocation, saying that he has left a lasting legacy that should be emulated by both the priests and laity.
Bro Israel Luyinda – the Deputy Superior General of the congregation of Brothers of St Charles Lwanga, commonly known as Bannakalooli, revealed that the late had left behind over five acres of a natural forest, which he planted with several tree species as well as other plants of herbal medicinal value.
According to Luyinda, the deceased who died at the age of 96 had also written three books in which he compiled all the formulas of his herbal medicines, saying that the literature would be of great significance to future chemotherapeutic research works.
Additional reporting by URN
