L'Église catholique célèbre 200 ans d'existence en Afrique australe
L'Église catholique célèbre 200 ans d'existence en Afrique australe
Conférence des évêques catholiques d'Afrique australe (SACBC) || Par Mgr Clifford Stokes || 15 juin 2015
Célébration bicentenaire de l'Église en Afrique australe
Des traces historiques du développement de l'Église catholique en Afrique australe
En juin 2018, les catholiques d'Afrique australe célébreront le bicentenaire de l'établissement de l'Église catholique dans la région de l'Afrique australe.
Dès la découverte du Cap, la juridiction ecclésiastique sur elle appartenait à la mission portugaise sous l'autorité du roi du Portugal. Après la création de la Dutch East India Company au Cap en 1652, la pratique de la religion catholique était de facto interdite.
Ce n'est qu'en 1804 que Jacob Abraham de Mist, commissaire général de la colonie du Cap, décida que « toutes les sociétés religieuses qui, pour la promotion de la vertu et de la bonne morale, adorent un être tout-puissant, jouiraient dans cette colonie d'une égale protection contre les lois » et en 1805 trois prêtres hollandais arrivèrent pour servir les catholiques du Cap. L'un d'eux, le père Johannes Lansink, a été nommé préfet apostolique. L'année suivante, cependant, les autorités coloniales britanniques, qui avaient entre-temps repris la colonie, leur ont ordonné de quitter la région.
Le 7 juin 1818, le pape Pie Vll érige le Vicariat apostolique du Cap de Bonne Espérance et des territoires adjacents. Par la suite, l'île de Maurice a été ajoutée, de même que New Holland et Van Diemens Land (en fait, l'Australie moderne).
En 1820, le premier vicaire apostolique, Mgr Bede Slater OSB, s'arrêta au Cap pendant trois semaines pour se rendre à Maurice où il devait résider, laissant derrière lui le père Patrick Hurst Scully comme aumônier de la communauté catholique locale. À cette époque, la tolérance religieuse avait progressé. Le P. Scully a été remplacé par le P. Theodorus Wagener qui a ensuite été rejoint par le P. Thomas Rishton OSB. Mgr Slater est remplacé par Mgr William Placid Morris OSB, qui réside également à Maurice.
Le 6 juin 1837, le pape Grégoire XVI constitue le Cap de Bonne Espérance (c'est-à-dire toute la région de l'Afrique australe) un vicariat distinct et nomme Mgr Patrick Raymund Griffith OP comme premier vicaire apostolique résident.
Le 14 avril 1838 (samedi saint) Mgr Griffith marcha à terre au Cap. Alors qu'il s'intéressait initialement à l'évangélisation des Noirs, il s'occupait essentiellement, avec succès, des colons blancs. Il peut être considéré comme le fondateur de l'Église catholique d'Afrique du Sud.
En 1847, le Vicariat du Cap de Bonne Espérance fut divisé en Vicariats du District occidental et du District oriental du Cap de Bonne Espérance, dont le P. Aidan Devereux devint le premier Vicaire apostolique. C'est lui qui invita, en 1849, le premier groupe de religieuses en Afrique du Sud.
En 1852, les quatre premiers Oblats de Marie Immaculée arrivent pour établir une mission au Natal. Ils partirent plus tard pour l'évangélisation du Lesotho.
Le 24 mai 1872, la préfecture du district central du cap de Bonne-Espérance fut détachée du Vicariat occidental. D'autres subdivisions ont eu lieu les années suivantes. Ce n'est que dans les années 1880 que la première mission sud-africaine dans ce qui est aujourd'hui l'Afrique du Sud a été établie avec succès par les trappistes. En effet, longtemps absente de la scène missionnaire, la poussée missionnaire de l'Église catholique en Afrique australe a commencé à croître rapidement au XXe siècle.
Par ailleurs, tardivement, mais avec une vigueur croissante, divers secteurs de l'Église ont commencé à s'opposer au régime d'apartheid dans la seconde moitié du siècle.
On 11 January 1951, Pope Pius XII established by Papal Bull the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy in the then Union of South Africa, and set up the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Cape Town (comprising the suffragan sees of Aliwal, Oudtshoorn, Port Elizabeth, Queenstown and De Aar); Durban (comprising the suffragan sees of Mariannhill, Eshowe, Kokstad and Mthatha); Pretoria (comprising the suffragan sees of Johannesburg, Lydenburg, Swaziland and Pietersburg); and Bloemfontein (comprising the suffragan sees of Kroonstad, Bethlehem, Kimberley, Keimoes and Lesotho).
Further growth has taken place in the Church of Southern Africa since then: new dioceses have been created; Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Namibia – which had been part of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference – left the Conference to establish their own Conferences in 1969, 1972 and 1996 respectively; and the ecclesiastical province of Johannesburg was created in 2007 with the diocese of Johannesburg being raised to the status of an archdiocese.
The Catholic Church in Southern Africa Today and Bicentenary Celebration
Celebrating 200 Years of Catholic Faith
It was on June 7, 1818 that Pope Pius VII erected the Vicariate Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope and Adjacent Territories, thus constituting for the first time a formal presence of the Catholic Church in Southern Africa. While the first beginnings of the Church in Southern Africa had their origin in Cape Town, in the almost 200 years since then, the presence of the Catholic Church has grown to the extent that there are now twenty-eight dioceses and one vicariate apostolic in our Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) which includes South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland.
To commemorate the bi-centenary of the formal establishment of the Church within our Bishops’ Conference, we shall inaugurate our celebrations with a Mass of Thanksgiving in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Flight into Egypt on Sunday, June 25, 2017 at 3.00pm. Because of the limited space, invitations to this celebration are to be sent to priests and deacons in the Archdiocese, to chairpersons of parish pastoral councils and three parishioners in each parish, to religious superiors, to the lay leaders of each of the three sodalities in the Archdiocese, to the Regional Grand Knight of the Knights of da Gama, to the Magistral Delegate of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and to a representative of the Migrant and Refugee Communities in the Archdiocese.
Moreover, an invitation has also been extended to all the bishops of the SACBC since, while the origins of the Church have their roots in Cape Town, the intervening 200 years have witnessed the spread of the Church throughout Southern Africa. It is worth noting that the “adjacent territories”, referred to in the papal document of June 7, 1818, included both Australia and Mauritius and for this reason, an invitation will be sent to the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of both territories to visit Cape Town during the bi-centennial year.
During this Mass of Thanksgiving, tribute will be paid to the selfless contributions of those heroic early pioneers, both priests, religious and laity from far-off lands, by whose dedication and untiring efforts, the seeds of the Church were first planted in the Cape of Good Hope, as it was then known, and throughout Southern Africa.
We owe an immense debt of gratitude that can never be expressed adequately to so many religious congregations for their establishment of schools in our Archdiocese and throughout Southern Africa as a whole, and their invaluable contribution in the field of education during these two hundred years.
We owe much too to those members of religious congregations who have established hospitals and hospices for the sick and the dying and also to those whose charism is to minister to the poor and the destitute. At the offertory procession during this Mass, symbols of their contributions to the Southern African Church will be brought up and displayed in the sanctuary.
To further celebrate these heroic contributions by so many who, in face of much difficulty and often opposition, have brought the light of Christ into Southern Africa, during the Mass of Thanksgiving a specially decorated candle will be blessed and given to every bishop (or his delegate) to be taken back to his Cathedral and placed in a prominent position during this bi-centennial year. We hope to be able to present to every parish priest a copy of the papal document of June 7, 1818 for display in his church.
During the twelve months following upon the Mass inaugurating the bi-centennial year, there will be other large Archdiocesan celebrations. We are presently looking for a sufficiently large venue to accommodate 8000/9000 people for the celebration of a Mass. This would then be our principal celebration. Since we have not yet found such a suitable venue at a reasonable cost, we may have to extend our search further away from the city centre. This would be a Conference celebration at which all the bishops of the SACBC would be present.
As a secondary Archdiocesan celebration in the course of the bi-centennial year, there will be a Eucharistic procession starting from the Holy Cross parish, District Six and ending at the steps of our Cathedral with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. During the procession, there will be prayers for the enrichment of family life in our Archdiocese, for our young people and youth, for the elderly, for the sick and for migrants and refuges. Our prayers will reflect the Church in human solidarity with everyone. The details of this event will be advertised in due course.
There has also been a request for a national celebration in Cape Town at which all the bishops of the SACBC would be present. The possibility of such a celebration is currently being investigated.
During the bi-centennial year, there will be at least one large celebration in each deanery in the Archdiocese of Cape Town. There are eight deaneries in the Archdiocese and each, under the leadership of a dean who is a priest elected by the priests of each deanery, consists of a cluster of between eight and ten parishes. The dean’s role is to promote pastoral co-operation among the parishes that constitute the deanery.
On the Solemnity of All Saints celebrated on Sunday, November 5 this year, there will be a celebration in each deanery focussing upon Our Forefathers and Foremothers in the Faith. Also, as part of our year of celebration, Archbishop Stephen Brislin has agreed to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation at deanery level in 2018, where requested, rather than in individual parishes, thus promoting a greater sense of Church among those who are to receive the Sacrament.
Special liturgies are also to be arranged in parishes during this year of celebration. These could include a Lenten penitential celebration where the Church’s Failures of the Past are considered, an Advent or Lenten parish mission focussing upon the Renewal and Awakening of Faith, and an Easter celebration emphasising our personal invitation to Share in the New Life of our Risen Saviour.
Two special projects to include our Youth and School-going Children and their involvement in the celebration of 200 years of the Church in Southern Africa have also been arranged. The first includes two ‘Bi-centennial Catholic Schools Choir Festivals’ which will be held in the Cape Town City Hall on Sunday, August 27, 2017 and on Sunday, October 27, 2017. These choral festivals will showcase the talent of our Youth and recount the story of Catholic Education in South Africa.
The second project concerns a Youth competition entitled ‘Exploring our Catholic Heritage’. Parishes and Catholic Schools will soon be inviting our Youth to tell their story through a heritage research project. The best entries will be published in the Archdiocesan News. Details of this project will be circulated to Catechetical and Religious Education Co-ordinators shortly.
To close the bi-centennial celebrations, there will be a Mass of Thanksgiving at noon on Sunday, June 10, 2018, hopefully in every Cathedral, parish and mission station throughout Southern Africa. At that Mass, a recorded message from Pope Francis will be aired, and the special candle distributed at the opening Mass on June 25, 2017, will be lit in every Cathedral in South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, and bells will be rung, thus symbolising the solidarity of faith between all of us.
A media committee has been established to advertise the events planned for this year and produce a bi-centennial brochure with a calendar of events. This committee will also take responsibility for advertising major events during the year of celebration in the printed media and for ensuring that the archdiocesan website is up-to-date as far as events planned for the year of celebration are concerned. A prayer card reflecting a special prayer for the bi-centenary year in Xhosa, English and Afrikaans will soon be made available through the media committee.
An exciting year in which we shall celebrate our faith and those who have been instrumental in bringing it to Southern Africa is soon to be inaugurated. Let us prepare well through our prayers and the offering of our Masses for this grace-filled time of remembrance of those who have gone before us in the faith.
Compiled by Mgr Clifford Stokes, Vicar General in the Archdiocese of Cape Town
For More information Contact:
Mgr. Clifford Stokes
Tel: 0214622417
Courriel: stokesc@adct.org.za
