Ohure, Saturnino

The first Lotuho priest, Saturnino Ohure was born of Xillange and Ixonom about 1921 and was baptized at Torit in 1931. Soon he asked to enter Okaru Seminary, whence he passed to Gulu in 1938. On December 21, 1946 he was ordained a priest with Fr. Avellino Wani at Gulu. Some years later he was given responsibilities with the same Father at Lirya mission until 1955, when the existing Sudanese priests were transferred to the new vicariate of Rumbek under Bishop Irenaeus Dud. At the first general elections he stood for Torit and was elected. He soon became a leader of Southern MPs in the Constituent Assembly. When the Assembly was dissolved by the military government in November 1958, Fr. Saturnino retired to Yei and Porkele. In 1961, informed of his imminent arrest he fled to Uganda together with other ex-parlamentarians where he helped and counselled Sudanese refugees. In one of his travels in this connection he was killed by a Ugandan soldier near Kitgum on January 22, 1967. He was a distinguished priest, and an unselfish, prudent, and courageous leader.

V. Dellagiacoma

This article, received in 2005, is reprinted with permission from Sudanese Catholic Clergy, © copyright 1997 by Fr. V. Dellagiacoma (Provincial Comboni House, Khartoum, Sudan).