South African Catholic Bishop Decries “specter of strained relationships”, Wants Diocesan Unity Fostered in Jubilee Year

“This has manifested itself, particularly in matters pertaining to the transfer of priests and the proper scope of the authority vested in parish pastoral councils, with some erroneously believing that a bishop's decision to reassign a priest is contingent upon the consent of the council,” the Local Ordinary of Kimberley Diocese since April 2021 says.

For him, it is regrettable that the Parish finances are also behind conflicts in his Episcopal See, “with certain pastoral councils and Priests believing that they, rather than the Bishop, wield ultimate authority over financial administration in the parishes.”

“These instances underscore the need for a renewed commitment to education and formation, ensuring that all members of our diocesan community possess a better understanding of the laws of the Catholic Church,” Bishop Tsoke appeals. 

The Local Ordinary of Kimberley, who started his Episcopal Ministry in April 2016 as Auxiliary Bishop of South Africa’s Johannesburg Catholic Archdiocese goes on to caution the Clergy under his pastoral care against “using pastoral councils and the laity when they want to fight their bishop.”

“This only serves to undermine the unity that Christ so fervently desires for His Bride. Let us work together to build the Kingdom of God, and not work against one another, and join our Lord who is always praying that we may become one in and through His Grace,” he warns. 

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South African Catholic Bishop Decries “specter of strained relationships”, Wants Diocesan Unity Fostered in Jubilee Year

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In his Pastoral Letter, Bishop Tsoke also urges the people of God in Kimberley Diocese to turn their attention during the 2025 Jubilee year to the plight of youths, who is says are people grappling with the menace of drug abuse.

In South Africa, he says, “one of the key pastoral concerns is the way many young people have become enslaved by the shackles of substance abuse, which is destroying them as well as their families.”

“My fervent prayer is that this Jubilee Year will be a time in which our young people are set free from the prison of addiction,” the South African Catholic Bishop adds.

In the same way slaves were set free in the book of Leviticus, youths addicted to drugs need to be set free from this bondage, he says, and appeals, “This Jubilee should be dedicated to freeing people from various forms of bondage, particularly by delivering youth from the grip of drug and alcohol addiction.”

He goes on to encourage those involved in youth ministry to dedicate the 2025 Jubilee Year to the “deliverance of our youth from the scourge of substance abuse.”

“Pastoral outreach to young people should include both measures to prevent addiction as well as measures to rehabilitate those already ensnared by addiction,” Bishop Tsoke says. 

In announcing the start of a Year of Prayer on 21 January 2024 in preparation for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, the second in his Pontificate after the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015, Pope Francis said that the 2025 Jubilee will be “a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in one’s personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world.”

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