Just in time for "pride" month:
When King Mwanga II arose in 1884 to the throne of Buganda — the southern part of what is now Uganda — he appointed Joseph Mkasa, baptized two years before and a loyal servant of Mwanga’s father, King Mtesa, as majordomo, or chief-in-charge, of his palace and court. The new king literally owed his life to Mkasa, who a few years before courageously captured and killed with his bare hands a venomous snake that was threatening the then-prince’s life.
In addition to his official duties, Mkasa was also the de facto leader of the nascent Catholic community, since in 1882 the aging and paranoid King Mtesa had banished the Missionaries of Africa, called the White Fathers, from the realm. Their departure left Mkasa as the principal catechist of a growing number of Catholic catechumens, whom he powerfully persuaded to renounce slavery, polygamy and other practices against the Gospel, and to dedicate themselves heroically to serving those in need.
Upon becoming majordomo, Mkasa appointed a young catechumen, Charles Lwanga, to supervise the court pages. A short time later, the two of them began to observe that the new king was homosexually attracted to the teenage pages and was seeking to have them brought into his private company. Bugandan culture at the time accommodated such sexual abuse, especially coming from someone in a position of power.
Though just a neophyte and a catechumen, Mkasa and Lwanga knew that such behavior was absolutely incompatible with the Gospel and determined to do all that they could as good shepherds to protect the sheep entrusted to them from the ravenous wolf in regal garb.
Even though Mkasa and Lwanga were willing to die to defend the pages from the king’s moral corruption, they did not have a death wish. They first tried to persuade those pages who could easily disappear from court without any harm coming to their families to run away. With various ruses, they next began to ensure that the pages who remained were “otherwise occupied” whenever the king sent for them. Third, they began to teach the pages various ways to avert the king’s advances if the other measures failed.
These stratagems worked for a time, but the king eventually figured out what was going on. No longer able to avoid a direct confrontation, Mkasa bluntly rebuked the king for his perverse attraction to the boys in his service. Mwanga was consumed with anger against Mkasa and his fellow Christians who were helping the boys to avoid his advances. Under the pretext of Mkasa’s disloyalty for putting the commands of another king, “the God of the Christians,” over his own, Mwanga had him executed.
A few months later, when the king returned from a trip to see one of the routine victims of his sordid desires receiving catechetical instruction — which obviously involved teaching on the sins of homosexual activity and sexual abuse — he summoned the catechist, St. Denis Sebuggwawo, put a spear through his chest and had the court executioners hack his corpse to pieces.
The following day, the king rounded up all the pages and gave them a choice between the Christian God and him, between prayer and the predator, between life and death. He asked “those who do not pray” to stand with him and “those who pray” to stand opposite. Three sided with the king. Charles Lwanga and 26 pages — 16 Catholics and 10 Anglicans — sided with God. Mwanga sentenced the latter to be burned alive, which they were, after brutal torture, on Ascension Thursday, June 3, 1886.
Why, it's like this story serves a purpose.
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