Uganda Cult Figure Studied in L.A.; Warrants Out for Him, 5 Others

One of the leaders of a Ugandan doomsday cult whose sealed chapel burned with 530 people inside was a student priest who attended graduate school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, officials said Thursday.

The former student, Dominic Kataribabo, was one of six leaders of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God for whom Ugandan authorities issued arrest warrants Thursday. Those authorities assume that the cult leaders survived the fire and went into hiding.

Since the bodies were found in the chapel, mass graves have yielded hundreds more corpses, many of them strangled. Police found 81 bodies under a newly poured cement floor in Kataribabo’s 10-room house; 74 mutilated, strangled bodies were found in his backyard.

Roman Catholic Church and Loyola officials said Kataribabo earned a 1987 master’s degree in religious studies.

“He seemed to be pretty ordinary,” said university spokesman Norm Schneider, reviewing Kataribabo’s records. “He seems undistinguished.”

Los Angeles Archdiocese records show Kataribabo was awarded a full Loyola Marymount scholarship in 1985 under a university program benefiting third-world priests.

The young man was nominated for the Loyola Marymount scholarship by his local bishop in the Kampala, Uganda, archdiocese.

The Los Angeles archdiocese provides housing for the program. Kataribabo lived at St. Anthony’s parish rectory in El Segundo, archdiocese spokesman Father Gregory Corio said.

The archdiocese granted “sacramental ministry” permission to Kataribabo, meaning he could say Mass and conduct weddings at St. Anthony’s, Corio said.

The ordained priest from Uganda left the United States on July 10, 1987. Neither Schneider nor Corio knew Kataribabo.

The arrest warrants, issued in Uganda, name the most prominent sect figures: Joseph Kibwetere, Keredonia Mwerinde and Kataribabo. Some local Ugandan residents believe that the three perished in the fire with the other cult members.

The others named in the warrants--Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara and Ursula Komuhangi--were listed on cult documents. All six are charged with 10 counts of murder and could be hanged if convicted.