This was 2019
16
The Southern Cross, December 18 to December 24, 2019
YEAR-END REVIEW
The highlights and lowlights of the year
It was a year in which Church leaders talked tough on abuse, the pope visited our neighbourhood, South Africa was rocked by violence against women and foreign nationals, the world’s youth met in Panama, and the pope convened a synod on the Amazon. GüNTHER SIMMERMACHER looks back at 2019. DECEMBEr 2018
It is announced that Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley coadjutor archbishop of Durban, with the right to succeed Cardinal Wilfrid Napier when he retires. He is installed on February 10. The sacraments are not for sale and priests must not demand payment for performing them if the recipient is indigent—but the faithful should pay stole fees if they can afford it, according to Bishop Victor Phalana of Klerksdorp. For the first time, Christmas Day is an official holiday across the country for all Iraqis. A gunman kills four people and then himself inside the cathedral of Our Lady of the Conception in Campinas, Brazil. Veteran broadcaster Pat Rogers, who helped launch Radio Veritas, dies at 87 on December 23. South African Sister Wendy Beckett, who gained fame in the 1990s for television shows and books explaining art, dies at 88 on December 26 in England.
JaNUarY 2019
Catholic schools have again outperformed the national average in the 2018 matric results. The Catholic schools that wrote the NSC exams recorded a pass rate of 84,4% (6,2% above the national pass rate). Schools writing the IEB examination achieved a 99% pass rate. Our Lady of Montserrat church in Betty’s Bay, near Hermanus in the Western Cape, is totally destroyed in a wildfire. A brave parishioner retrieves the tabernacle before the flames can reach it. Renowned priest-artist Fr Wilfried Joye OMI of Klerksdorp diocese dies in Belgium at 79 on January 7. The Vatican denies having had knowledge of sexual abuse allegations against Argentine Bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta before his December 2017 appointment to a Vatican office. Addressing Palestinian Christians in the West Bank town of Zababdeh, Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town says the Church cannot be silent or neutral in the face of injustice committed against Palestinians.
Bishop Boniface Tshosa Setlalekgosi, retired of Gaborone, dies on January 25 at 91. The world’s youth gathers in Panama for World Youth Day, with an estimated 600 000 attending the vigil and final Mass, led by Pope Francis. He announces that World Youth Day 2022 will be held in Lisbon, Portugal.
FEBrUarY
Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha succeeds Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town as SACBC president. Three classrooms and other facilities are destroyed in a fire at Holy Cross Primary School in District Six, Cape Town (rebuilding begins in November). A fire also destroys the presbytery at Maria Mamohau church in Orkney, Klerksdorp diocese. The SACBC introduces a new English translation for common liturgical rites concerning the orders of celebrating matrimony and confirmation, and Eucharistic prayers for Masses with children. Fr John Masilo Selemela is the new rector of St John Vianney National Seminary in Pretoria. Pope Francis travels to the United Arab Emirates—the first-ever papal visit to the Arabian peninsula—meeting with Catholics and signing a joint declaration on human fraternity with Ahmed elTayeb, Grand Imam of al-Azhar in
Cairo, during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi. The political and corporate sectors have betrayed the trust of the people, and the May 8 general election “presents all South Africans with the opportunity to renew our vision” for the country, say the bishops of Southern Africa in a pastoral letter. Pope Francis lifts the canonical penalties imposed 34 years ago on Fr Ernesto Cardenal, 94, the Nicaraguan poet and former member of the Sandinista government. Pope Francis convenes a summit of the world’s bishops’ conference presidents on handling the sexual abuse crisis in the Church, including holding bishops accountable for handling cases correctly. Bishop Sipuka describes the summit as “a turning point in the life of the Church—things will not be the same”. Australian Cardinal George Pell, 77, is convicted of child sexual abuse in a Melbourne court, and sentenced to six years in jail. After losing his appeal in June, he pursues further legal avenues of appeal.
MarCH
Among the 157 who died when a Boeing airplane crashed in Addis Ababa was Kenyan Mariannhill Missionaries Father George Kageche Mukua, 40, who studied at St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Cedara, KwaZulu-Natal. Among the
Cardinal Stanislaw rylko looks at an image of St John henry newman during an october 12 vigil in rome’s basilica of St Mary Major the night before the 19th-century theologian’s canonisation. (Photo: Paul haring/CnS)
Archbishop Abel Gabuza (second from left) is received in Durban as the archdiocese’s coadjutor in February. With him are Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, apostolic nuncio Archbishop Peter Wells, and Fr Sylvester David OMI, the outgoing vicar-general of the archdiocese who in June would be appointed auxiliary bishop in Cape Town. other victims was Sr Florence Wangari Yongi, a Kenyan Notre Dame de Angers Sister. Five nuns in India complain of Church repression for their support of a former superior general who was allegedly raped by Bishop Franco Mulakkal. Noting that the bishops of Southern Africa have decided to address the issue of sexual abuse of religious Sisters in the region, Bishop Sipuka says that “women religious must be empowered to refuse any form of abuse by priests”. After the devastating impact of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, South African churches collect relief funds and items. Kenyan Franciscan Brother Peter Tabichi is awarded the $1 million Global Teacher Prize for 2019. He plans to give away the money. He is later named Person of the Year by the United Nations in Kenya. Mill Hill Father John Melhuish of Rustenburg dies in a car crash on March 23 at the age of 69. In a document titled Communis Vita, Pope Francis amends Canon Law to include an almost automatic dismissal of religious who are absent without authorisation from their community for at least 12 months. Fr Claude Grou, 77, is injured after being stabbed in the stomach by a 26-year-old suspect during a televised morning Mass in St Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal, Canada. Pope Francis issues his apostolic exhortation Christus Vivit (“Christ Lives”) on the 2018 Synod of Bishops on the Youth. Jordan’s King Abdullah II is awarded the Lamp of Peace, a top Catholic peace prize presented by the Conventual Franciscans of the Sacred Convent of Assisi. On a brief visit to Morocco, Pope Francis addresses dialogue between Christianity and Islam; the Christian mission; migration; and the status of Jerusalem.
aPriL
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Nazareth Care Centre in Johannesburg closes its HIV/Aids clinic and hospice after the Gauteng Department of Health withdraws financial support. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI publishes a controversial essay which blames the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s for the abuse crisis in the Church. The roof of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris catches fire, toppling its spire. Much of the interior is preserved, but restoration may take years and cost several billion euros. At least 290 people are killed and more than 500 injured in jihadist Easter attacks on three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka. For the first time in 300 years, the marble steps of the Holy Stairs in Rome are free from the thick wooden panels installed in 1723, and will be left uncovered for the public between April 11 and June 9. Mediating peace talks between leaders of South Sudanese factions, Pope Francis kisses their feet in a lesson in humility. When South Africans inflict violence on migrants, they recklessly go against the solemn oath of Nelson Mandela that never again shall a human being be oppressed by an-
other human being in South Africa, Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg warns in a pastoral letter. Bishop Dabula Mpako of Queenstown is appointed new archbishop of Pretoria to succeed Archbishop William Slattery. He is installed on June 22.
MaY
Canadian Catholic philosopher, theologian and humanitarian Jean Vanier dies at 90 on May 7. The Southern Cross pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land is led by Fr Russell Pollitt SJ. Pope Francis visits Bulgaria and North Macedonia, including Mother Teresa’s birthplace Skopje. Pakistani authorities release Asia Bibi, a Catholic woman acquitted of blasphemy after spending a decade on death row. The SACBC congratulates the Independent Electoral Commission and all political parties for creating an environment conducive to free and fair elections. Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, retired Maronite patriarch, dies at 98 on May 12. A bus carrying 25 Catholic pilgrims from Durban is targeted in a terrorist attack in Cairo. Aside from a few minor injuries, nobody is seriously harmed. The theological commission appointed to study the history of women deacons has not reached a unanimous conclusion about whether deaconesses in the early Church were “ordained” or formally “blessed”. St Augustine College, South Africa’s Catholic university, confers the Bonum Commune Award—the equivalent of an honorary doctorate, on Archbishop Buti Tlhagale. The Vatican clears the way for dioceses and parishes to organise official pilgrimages to Medjugorje, but makes clear that the Catholic Church has not recognised as authentic the alleged Marian apparitions there. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate appoint South African Fr Mokone Joseph Rathakoa superior of the order’s general house in Rome. Johannesburg Catholic journalist Lebo WA Majahe dies suddenly at 35 on May 26. Bishop Giuseppe Sandri of Witbank dies at the age of 72 on Ascension Thursday, May 30. Pope Francis begins his threeday visit to Romania.
JUNE
The new norms and legal, criminal and safeguarding procedures contained in an apostolic letter titled “On the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons”, take effect on June 1. Thembi Kgatlana, star player of South Africa’s women’s football team and parishioner of Our Lady of Africa in Mohlakeng, Johannesburg, scores against Spain in the World Cup in France. The Winter Theology of the Jesuit Institute and the SACBC is presented in several centres by Fr David Marcotte SJ of the Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York on the spirituality and psychology of wellbeing. Bishop Franklyn Nabuasah of Francistown is appointed the new bishop of Gaborone.