Advertisement
Catholic Bishops in Southern Africa have eulogized the late Andrew Mlangeni, the anti-apartheid icon who stood the 1963-1964 Rivonia Trial alongside Nelson Mandela, applauding him for his contribution to democracy and equality in South Africa.
The ordination of Bishop Joseph Kizito as the Local Ordinary of Aliwal Diocese in the Ecclesiastical province of Eastern Cape, South Africa in February was the highlight of the Ugandan-born Prelate’s life.
Catholic Bishops in Southern Africa have eulogized the late Archbishop Emeritus of Lesotho’s Maseru Archdiocese, Bernard Mohlalisi, recalling with appreciation his pastoral service to the people of God in Lesotho and offering “hospitality and spiritual care” to exiled South Africans during the apartheid regime.
A South African Cardinal has urged Coordinators of the development and humanitarian arm of the Catholic Bishops in the country, Caritas South Africa, to be bold in addressing the plight of the poor in the 22-diocese nation and “win for them self-esteem and self-respect.”
Ardent listeners of Radio Veritas, the only Catholic radio in South Africa, are being treated to hours of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) content following a temporary interruption of the radio station’s normal programming after its manager tested positive for COVID-19.
Clergy and the lay faithful in South Africa have paid glowing tributes to the late Bishop Patrick Zithulele Mvemve who was, until his resignation in April 2013, the Local Ordinary of South Africa’s Klerksdorp Diocese, remembering him as a “servant leader (and) Bishop of the second chance” who “loved sodalities.”
The leadership of the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) has, in an interview with ACI Africa, shared what Church leaders in the region are doing to fight gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) in South Africa, which has spiked in recent times.
An Irish missionary Cleric serving in South Africa has, on the occasion of his 56th Priestly anniversary recently marked, shared a message of hope amid COVID-19 global pandemic, inviting the people of God on the continent to remain optimistic because the coronavirus “will come to pass.”
On the annual event of the International Day of the African Child (DAC), known as the National Youth Day in South Africa where the event was born, the Catholic Bishop heading the Justice and Peace Commission of the three-nation Bishops’ Conference has urged the youth to be ready to make sacrifices that can “pave the road to change, shifting our country’s narrative and destiny.”
The leadership of the Catholic Church in South Africa has described the four members of the Religious Congregation of the Precious Blood Sisters who succumbed to COVID-19 as “generous servants of the Lord” who died “in a very short period of time.”
Catholic Church leaders in Southern Africa are calling for a change of approach in tackling the increasing cases of gender-based violence (GBV), proposing an “aggressive and holistic approach” that brings together various stakeholders in the way COVID-19 is being fought against.
The announcement by South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa May 26 that places of worship may reopen beginning from June 1 has elicited mixed reactions from church leaders in the country, some welcoming the move and others terming it as questionable.
Hard pressed to evade starvation amid stringent COVID-19 restrictions, poor families in South Africa are risking contagion and moving from house to house to beg, a situation that has attracted the attention of Salesian missionaries working in the Southern African country.
With reported increasing cases of job losses and food shortage in South Africa following the COVID-19 lockdown in the country, charity organizations have come out strongly to support the most adversely affected.
The members of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) have, in a pastoral letter, expressed solidarity with their laity who they say are experiencing stress owing to the COVID-19-related restrictions in Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland.
As the world marked the International Nurses Day on Tuesday, May 12, celebrating the fearlessness, hard work and selflessness of nurses who continue to put their lives on the line to save those who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, our attention at ACI Africa was drawn to a clinic in South Sudan where health caregivers are fighting all odds in times of the pandemic to attend to the sick.
Following the decision by the parliament of the landlocked Southern African nation of Botswana to begin a gradual lifting of the five-week COVID-19 lockdown, a Bishop in the two-diocese country has welcomed the move, terming it “light at the end of the turnel.”
In South Africa where COVID-19 restrictions have plunged the country into various crimes including police brutalities and a rise in cases of gender-based violence (GBV), church leaders drawn from 30 Christian denominations have condemned the crimes and encouraged the use of WhatsApp to report cases of violence founded on gender.
Pope Francis has appointed Fr. Noel Andrew Rucastle as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
The Archbishop-elect of South Africa’s Bloemfontein Archdiocese is looking forward to a collaborative ministry with the people of God who will be under his care, he has said in an interview.