Year-end Review 1998
January
The Vatican pays tribute to the 66 Catholic missionaries killed in 1997.
Pope John Paul makes a historic visit to communist Cuba. The pope calls on Cuba to permit religious freedoms, and on the United States to lift sanctions against Cuba.
Catholic-run institutions say they are being hit hard by financial and administrative bungling in the Eastern Cape.
The Cape Town parish of Brooklyn/Milnerton experiences a spate of Satanic attacks, including death threats to parish priest Fr Stan Botha.
A 39-year-old man incinerates himself on St Peter’s Square, and dies ten days later.
It is revealed that South Africa’s Catholic schools achieved a pass rate of 96% in 1997.
Pope John Paul names 22 new cardinals, including the archbishops of Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania, and Lusaka, Zambia. Among the new cardinals is Vienna’s Christoph Schönborn, 53, tipped by many as a future pope.
The excommunication of Sri Lankan Oblate Father Tissa Balasuriya is lifted.
February
At their plenary meeting, the Southern African bishops adopt a set of procedures to be used should a priest be accused of child molestation. The ecumenical directory, which outlines situations where interdenominational communion is permissible, is adopted.
Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro is appointed nuncio to Southern Africa, replacing Archbishop Ambrose de Paoli, who has been transferred to Japan.
The Southern African bishops announce the nomination of Fr Pius Dlungwana as rector of St John Vianney seminary, to succeed Fr Graham Rose.
American figure skating Olympic champion Tara Lipinski credits St Thérèse of Lisieux for her success.
Parliamentarians representing most parties attend the first inter-denominational prayer service for MPs to be held in a Catholic church, St Mary’s cathedral in Cape Town.
South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, a Catholic, takes office. His main rival, Olaf Lee Hoi-chang, is also a Catholic.
March
President Nelson Mandela asks the churches to help end corruption.
British prime minister Tony Blair denies that he plans to convert to Catholicism. His wife Cherie is a Catholic, and he regularly attends Catholic mass.
Bishop Reginald Cawcutt, auxiliary in Cape Town, suggests that the Church should not actively oppose proposed legislation which would give same sex unions rights similar to those of a marriage.
The Southern African bishops meet President Nelson Mandela in Cape Town. Mr Mandela praises the Catholic Church for its role in fighting against apartheid and its work in post-apartheid South Africa.
Polish Carmelite nuns hand over their controversial convent at Auschwitz concentration camp as part of an agreement to remove Catholic symbols from the site.
The Catholic Schools’ Bursary Scheme, a pioneer in the desegregation of education, closes.
A new Vatican document says it is unrealistic to expect that women be admitted to the diaconate.
Assisted suicide activist Jack Kervorkian notches up his 100th suicide.
During his trip to Nigeria, Pope John Paul calls on the country’s military regime to institute democracy.
In a document on the holocaust, the Church defends the World War II policies of Pope Pius XII, but condemns the Nazi genocide and the part played in it by individual Catholics.
During his visit to South Africa, US President Bill Clinton attends Catholic mass at Regina Mundi church in Soweto, and receives communion. The parish priest defends his action by referring to the SACBC’s ecumenical directory. The SACBC says it was wrong to give Mr Clinton communion.
April
A Jesuit priest, Fr Chris Donahue, receives an Oscar for co-producing the best live-action short film, Visas and Virtue.
Satellite TV broadcaster Multichoice apologises and agrees to pull an ad depicting pop singer Madonna as the Blessed Virgin from the April issue of the M-Net television guide.
Western Australian Pro-Life parliamentarian Phillip Pendal says that the tactics used by pro- life groups were to blame for the failure of important anti-abortion legislation being passed.
Archbishop Denis Hurley is named chaplain of St John Ambulance in Durban.
It is announced that South Africa’s first Catholic university, St Augustine’s, will operate fully in 1999.
Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedra is murdered two days before being scheduled to present a report on human rights abuses during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war.
The SACBC pays tribute to Anglican anti-apartheid activist Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, who died in England on April 20.
The Shroud of Turin goes on exhibition in Turin cathedral for two months.
Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and the United States’ richest man, donates R8,5 million to abortion and birth control projects in poorer countries.
May
The newly appointed commandant of the Swiss Guards, Colonel Alois Estermann, and his wife are slain in their apartment by Swiss Guard Cedric Tournay, who commits suicide.
The Vatican pronounces no moral objections to the new anti-impotence pill Viagra.
Pakistani Bishop John Joseph of Faisalabad commits suicide in protest against Pakistan’s harsh Islamic blasphemy laws.
The Synod for Asia calls for respectful dialogue with other religions, missionary outreach and a renewed commitment to the continent’s poor.
Teams from predominantly Catholic countries–France, Brazil and Croatia–come first, second and third in the football World Cup in France.
June
The first Mater Vitae home for pregnant women seeking an alternative to abortion opens in Durban.
Archbishop Wilfrid Napier of Durban says that President Nelson Mandela should not ask the churches to help restore moral values when his own government undermines these by legalising abortion.
The former managing editor of The Southern Cross, Gene Donnelly, is awarded the Bene Merenti papal medal for his long service to the newspaper.
President Nelson Mandela meets Pope John Paul at the Vatican to discuss the future of South Africa and the African continent.
The Vatican announces its biggest ever budget surplus in 1997.
Pope John Paul visits Austria.
The Lutheran and Catholic churches approve the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.”
July
In an apostolic letter, Pope John Paul changes canon law to underline Catholics’ obligation to accept Church teachings.
German theologian Bernhard Häring dies on July 3.
President Nelson Mandela meets 16-year old Pretoria Catholic Nelson Olival, who is suffering from cancer.
Frs Ivan and Wayne Dawson from Heathfield, Cape Town, become South Africa’s first twin priests when Wayne is ordained in Cape Town.
Sr Theoldelind Schreck, 57, is murdered in a hijacking near Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, on July 26.
August
Fr Albert Herold, 70, of Eshowe is hijacked on his way back from the funeral of Sr Theodelind Schreck.
After a scientific inquiry into the “Christ in the mirror” in a Verulam home, the archdiocese of Durban declares that the image “cannot be regarded as an authentic object of veneration.”
Eighteen Southern African Catholic bishops meet with survivors of massacres in strife-torn Richmond in KwaZulu-Natal.
Vatican officials say Pope John Paul may pronounce a mea culpa during the jubilee year 2000.
Pope John Paul makes his first live broadcast on the Internet.
Ghana-born Fr Franklyn Nubuasah is appointed first bishop of the newly created diocese of Francistown in Botswana.
It is announced that the Durban Passion Play, due to be performed in 2002, will be staged during the jubilee year 2000.
The Congregation for Doctrine bans some of the writings of the late Jesuit author Tony De Mello.
Hundreds of people are killed in a massacre at the Catholic mission in Kasuika in the civil war afflicted Democratic Republic of Congo.
The head of Durban’s archdiocesan justice and peace commission, James Sikhakhane, 36, is murdered at his home.
September
The Catholic founder of the Love of Christ Ministries, Thea Jarvis, is awarded the prestigious Woman of the Year award by the Afrikaans Taal en Kultuur Vereeniging.
An Anglican priest, upset at his denomination’s ordination of his wife, announces that he will become a Catholic.
Ireland’s ambassador to South Africa, Eammon O’Tuathail, is appointed his country’s ambassador to the Vatican.
A teacher at a Mariannhill Catholic school, Sandile Mdadane, is killed and Fr Vincent Ndabe of Mariannridge is wounded during a hijacking in Ixopo.
US Catholic baseball star Mark McGwire breaks the 37-year-old homerun record set by Roger Maris, also a Catholic. Maris’s record is broken shortly after by Sammy Sosa, another Catholic.
Four nuns in India’s Madhya Pradesh state are gangraped amid concerns that Hindu nationalists are conducting a campaign of harassment against Christians.
A bill to relax Spain’s abortion law further is defeated in parliament by one vote.
October
Controversial Croatian Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac is beatified by Pope John Paul at Croatia’s national shrine, Marija Bistrica.
Nelson Olival, the Pretoria youth visited by President Mandela in July, dies on October 2.
Pope John Paul canonises Edith Stein, a Jewish philosopher who became a Catholic nun and died at Auschwitz.
Pope John Paul celebrates the 20th pontifical anniversary. The Southern Cross dedicates a special issue to the pope.
Former Southern Cross managing director William O’Grady, 87, dies in Durban, and former managing editor Andrew Murray, 81, dies in London, both on October 11.
Pope John Paul issues his encyclical on philosophy, Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason).
Led by 8,000 sites in Mexico, 20 million people throughout the world take part in the rosary for world peace.
November
While the SACBC welcomes the report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, ANC politician Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa criticises the TRC for equating the abuses of the liberation movements with those of the apartheid regime.
The Israeli ambassador to the Vatican asks the Church to wait 50 years before beatifying Pope Pius XII.
The South African component of the worldwide campaign to cancel the third world debt in 2000 is launched in Cape Town.
The synod for Oceania gathers at the Vatican.
American euthanasia activist Dr Jack Kervorkian shows a video of an actual suicide he assisted at on a US actuality programme, and is subsequently charged with murder.
December
The Vatican welcomes the reintroduction of Christmas as an official holiday in Cuba, where the feast had been banned since 1969.
The Lesotho conference of superiors criticises South Africa’s incursion into their country, calling for an immediate withdrawal.
The Vatican calls a US bombing blitz on Iraq “an act of aggression.”
The archdiocese of Cape Town announces that it woill withdraw its students from the national seminaries, and establish its own archdiocesan seminary.
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