South African Catholic Bishop Seeking to Prioritize Budgeting Policies to Sustain Diocese

In the October 20 interview, Bishop Frank underscored “financial stability”, as the Diocese is known to have “lots of vocations for the Priesthood”, but due to financial limitations is unable to fund the Priestly formation of Major Seminarians and “ongoing formation of Priests”.

“We're just come out of COVID-19 this year, so our local incomes have been rather low. The number of students we have are still very numerous and we pride ourselves as one of those Dioceses that have lots of vocations for the Priesthood, but funding the education for our students is quite demanding”, said Bishop Frank.

Apart from financial challenges, Mariannhill Diocese is also grappling with scandals that led to the Diocese being put under an Apostolic Administrator in 2020. In the October 20 interview, Bishop Frank said that both Clergy and women and men Religious have agreed to “cooperate” and move beyond the challenges in the South African Diocese.

“We have faced the questions and talked about things maybe not fully in depth but the sense that I have after these eight months, is that there are lots of good Priests here; and the basic message that they are giving me is we will cooperate with you,” the South African Bishop told ACI Africa.

He added, “I've only experienced respect and acceptance, and I feel I've developed a good relationship with the Priests.”

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He continued, “I acknowledge the divisions of the past… In almost every meeting with the Priests I would mention that we need to go forward and there's great willingness on the part of the Priests to go forward. I think with the meetings, we've had such a great response.”

“In the past, there's been a characterization of the divisions in the Diocese between heterosexual and homosexual Priests and I think this is just a construction placed over the other divisions that were there and the sexual orientation kind of description of it, seems to me to distract from what the real problems are. That has been my analysis in these eight months, and I'm beginning to address some of the matters that are deeper,” he added.

The 56-year-old South African Bishop further said, “I think there's a journey ahead for us, but it's just the constant meeting and willingness among everyone to get beyond the hurts of the past, and also to heal, to bring back, to restore the trust of the people in the Priesthood.”

In the October 20 interview, Bishop Frank cautioned the laity of Mariannhill against being “part of a division or part of the problem” between members of the Clergy.

“We are building up the Diocesan Pastoral Council, and I made it very clear at the Diocesan Pastoral Council that if a Priest speaks ill of one of his brothers to the lay people, they should not accept such behavior. The lay people should not become part of a division or part of the problem,” he said.

The Local Ordinary of Mariannhill Diocese told ACI Africa that “despite its problems … there certainly is a great sense of being Church” in Mariannhill.

“Among the Laity, there's just so much of goodwill; there's so much of faith here; it's tangible in Mariannhill. The Sodalities are just so strong, and there are lots of moments where I can meet with them and engage with them,” Bishop Frank said during the October 20 interview.

Sheila Pires is a veteran radio and television Mozambican journalist based in South Africa. She studied communications at the University of South Africa. She is passionate about writing on the works of the Church through Catholic journalism.