Catholic Bishop in South Africa Concerned about Weakness of Conference’s Institutions

The SACBC President who has been at the helm of South Africa’s Mthatha Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination in May 2008 highlighted the challenges that CIE is facing, including the lack of qualified teachers to teach in Catholic schools in the region.

“One of the major challenges we have in our Catholic schools is the quality of the teachers who do not have work ethics to say anything about the Catholic ethos,” he said.

Bishop Sipuka proposed the establishment of a SACBC teachers’ training college so as “to strengthen this significant foothold for influence in society.”

He said that a SACBC-owned teachers’ training college would produce teachers of good quality for Catholic learning institutions.

In his address at the event that was held at St. John Vianney National Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Pretoria, the South African Catholic Bishop also identified financing as the other major concern of the SACBC. 

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“Like all other institutions, the financial situation of our Dioceses, and therefore of the Conference, is getting worse and worse,” Bishop Sipuka said, and explained that some Bishops in the three-nation Conference have been unable to send and pay for their students in the Seminary.

“Soon, we will see more Bishops being in this (financial) situation,” he said, and added, “In her report to the November board, the finance coordinating secretary painted a gloomy picture where fees will be drastically going up every year; in five years, this seminary will be struggling to survive because Bishops will not afford to bring their students here.”

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.