Catholic Church in South Africa

The Catholic Church in South Africa is part of the worldwide Catholic Church composed of the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, of which the South African church is under the spiritual leadership of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference and the Pope in Rome. It is made up of 26 dioceses and archdioceses plus an apostolic vicariate.

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In 1996, there were approximately 3.3 million Catholics in South Africa, making up 6% of the total South African population. Currently, there are 3.8 million Catholics.[1] 2.7 million are of various black African ethnic groups, such as Zulu, Xhosa, and Sotho. Coloured and white South Africans each account for roughly 300,000.[2]

Roman Catholic evangelization efforts have traditionally focused on Black South Africans. In the 1950s, however, an effort began to evangelize Afrikaans-speakers, who had previously been ignored by Catholic missionaries. Success in the Afrikaans Apostolate remained minimal until the death throes of Apartheid during the mid to late 1980s. As Catholic texts began to be translated into Afrikaans, sympathetic Dutch Reformed pastors, who were defying the traditional anti-Catholicism of their Church, assisted in correcting linguistic errors. By 1996, the majority of Afrikaans-speaking Catholics came from the Coloured community, with a smaller number of Afrikaner converts, most of whom were from professional backgrounds.[3]

Most White South African Catholics are English speakers, and the majority are descended from Irish immigrants. Many others are Portuguese South Africans, many of whom emigrated from Angola and Mozambique after they became independent and disintegrated into civil war during the 1970s and then majority of South Africa's Italian population. The proportion of Catholics among the predominantly Calvinist white Afrikaans speakers, or Asian South Africans who are mainly Hindus or Protestant of Indian descent, is extremely small.

Organisation

Jurisdictions

The Catholic Church in South Africa consists of five Archdioceses (Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesberg, and Pretoria), 22 Dioceses, 2 Vicariates Apostolic and a Military Ordinariate. The five Ecclesiastical provinces are—

  • Bloemfontein
    • Leadership: Archbishop Jabulani Adatus Nxumalo, O.M.I. appointed 10 October 2005.
    • Contains the following dioceses:
      • Bethlehem
        • Bishop Jan de Groef, M. Afr. appointed 31 December 2008.
      • Keimoes-Upington - Upington, Northern Cape
        • Bishop Edward Risi, O.M.I. appointed 14 October 2000.
      • Kimberley
        • Bishop Abel Gabuza, appointed 23 December 2010.
      • Kroonstad
  • Cape Town
    • Leadership: Archbishop Stephen Brislin appointed 18 December 2009.
    • Contains the following dioceses:
      • Aliwal
        • Bishop Michael Wüstenberg appointed 24 February 2008.
      • De Aar
        • Bishop Joseph Potocnak, S.C.I. appointed 1 May 1992.
      • Oudtshoorn
        • Bishop Emeritus Francisco Fortunato De Gouveia appointed 28. May 2010.(retired July 2018)diocese busy electing new bishop.
      • Port Elizabeth
        • Bishop Vincent Zungu consecrated 28 June 2014.
      • Queenstown
        • Bishop Herbert Lenhof, S.A.C. appointed 3 February 1984.
  • Durban
    • Leadership: Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, appointed 29 March 1992.
    • Contains the following dioceses:
      • Dundee
      • Eshowe
        • Bishop Thaddaeus Kumalo appointed 11 March 2008.
      • Kokstad
        • Bishop William Slattery, O.F.M. appointed 19 February 1994.
      • Mariannhill
        • Bishop Pius Mlungisi Dlungwana, appointed 3. June 2006.
      • Umtata
        • Bishop Anton Sipuka appointed 8 February 2008.
      • Umzimkulu
        • Bishop Stanisław Jan Dziuba, O.S.P.P.E. appointed 31 December 2008.
      • Vicariate Apostolic of Ingwavuma
        • Bishop José Luís Gerardo Ponce de León, I.M.C. appointed 24 November 2008.
  • Johannesburg
    • Leadership: Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, O.M.I. appointed 8 April 2003.
    • Contains the following dioceses:
      • Klerksdorp
        • Bishop Victor Hlolo Phalana appointed 25 January 2015
      • Manzini (Geographically external to South Africa - In Swaziland)
        • Bishop Louis Ndlovu, O.S.M. appointed 1 July 1985.
      • Witbank
  • Pretoria
    • Archbishop William Slattery, OFM appointed 23 December 2010.
    • Contains the following dioceses:
      • Gaborone (Geographically external to South Africa - In Botswana)
        • Bishop Valentine Tsamma Seane appointed 5 Feb 2009.
      • Polokwane
        • Bishop Jeremiah Madimetja Masela appointed 10 June 2013.
      • Rustenburg
        • Bishop Kevin Dowling, C.SS.R. appointed 2 December 1990.
      • Tzaneen
        • Bishop Hugh Patrick Slattery, M.S.C. appointed 22 June 1984.
      • Vicariate Apostolic of Francistown (Geographically external to South Africa - In Botswana)
        • Bishop Frank Atese Nubuasah, S.V.D. appointed 27 June 1998.
  • Military Ordinariate of South Africa
    • Leadership: Archbishop William Slattery, OFM appointed 23 December 2010.

Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference

The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference is a collegial body approved by the Holy See and has as its particular aim:

to provide the bishops of the territories mentioned above with facilities for consultation and united action in such matters of common interest to the Church as consultation and co-operation with other hierarchies; the fostering of priestly and religious vocations; the doctrinal, apostolic and pastoral formation of the clergy, religious and laity; the promotion of missionary activity, catechetics, liturgy, lay apostolate, ecumenism, development, justice and reconciliation, social welfare, schools, hospitals, the apostolate of the press, radio, television, and other means of social communication; and any other necessary activity.

Apostolic Nuncio

The Apostolic Nuncio to South Africa is Archbishop Peter Bryan Wells appointed to the post on 9 February 2016. He was also the Apostolic Nuncio to Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Namibia.

Catholic Church and apartheid

Denis Hurley, Archbishop of Durban and a member of the Central Preparatory Committee of Vatican II, stands perhaps as the most eminent Catholic cleric in South African history. He was appointed bishop at the age of 31 and was a leader in opposing the apartheid regime. Like him, many senior officials within the Catholic Church in South Africa opposed apartheid, but a group of conservative white Catholics formed the South African Catholic Defence League to condemn the church's political involvement and, in particular, to denounce school integration.[4]

People

Education
  • The Syringa Tree, an award-winning stage play by Pamela Gien, relates the life story of Elizabeth Grace, a White South African Catholic girl, during the Apartheid era and its aftermath.

References
  1. GCatholic.org
  2. Catholics in RSA 1996 census statistics posted on the website of the Archdiocese of Bloemfontein.
  3. Afrikaans-Speaking Catholics in the Rainbow Republic, Catholic World News, 14 November 1996.
  4. Country Studies. "Religion and apartheid". Source: Rita M. Byrnes, ed. South Africa: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1996.

Sources
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