Year-end Review 2006

JANUARY 2006
The Vatican Congregation for Evangelisation reveals that 27 Catholic missionaries were killed in 2005.
In his first encyclical, titled Deus caritas est, Pope Benedict reflects on the subject of love.
The Southern African Church and the Catholic Institute of Education launch the Care of the Teacher Year.
Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981, is released from a Turkish prison, but is soon re-arrested and jailed.
Memories, the autobiography of the late Archbishop Denis Hurley, is published.
An article in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano says that Intelligent Design is not science and should not be taught as a scientific theory alongside Darwinian evolution.
Amateurish media efforts can give God a bad name, Archbishop John Foley, prefect of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, warns.
The celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Swiss Guard begin in Rome.

FEBRUARY
The bishops of Southern Africa pledge to establish a desk at their Pretoria headquarters to combat human trafficking. They also call on Catholics to vote in the March 1 local elections.
Pope Benedict says that marriage annulment processes should be completed speedily while fully following Church law. 
A pro-life conference is held in Cape Town.
Italian Fr Andrea Santoro, 60, of Trebizond, Turkey, is murdered. A 16-year-old is arrested, and in October sentenced to 18 years in jail. 
Bishop Barry Wood is installed as auxiliary bishop of Durban in a ceremony also celebrating Cardinal Wilfrid Napiers 25th episcopal anniversary.
Gangsters torture Fr Charles Kuppelwieser of Bronkhorstspruit and his housekeeper in a futile search of rumoured Sizanani millions.
South African Natural Family Planning activist Pat McGregor dies at 59.
US billionaire Tom Monaghan, founder of Dominos Pizza chain, starts building a town in Florida in which pornography, contraceptives and abortion will be banned.

MARCH
Pope Benedict installs 15 new cardinals at the Vatican, including one African: retired Archbishop Peter Dery of Ghana.
Former Dominican head Fr Timothy Radcliffe visits South Africa on a one-week preaching mission. 
Pope Benedict says it is right to discuss how women can be more involved in Church decision-making.
A Polish politician, Jerzy Urban, is found guilty of violating the honour of a public figure for insulting Pope John Paul II in 2002.
Pope Benedict participates in a live broadcast on Vatican Radio in celebration of the stations 75th birthday.
Bishop Louis Ndlovu of Manzini presents the outcome of Swazilands first ever synod. 
An Afghani Christian flees for Italy after being sentenced to death over his conversion from Islam. The Kabul Supreme Court overturned the sentence.

APRIL
Condemning all forms of sexual abuse of children, the SACBC calls for sexual abuse allegations against Church personnel to be reported.
Radio Veritas goes on air on FM for its special licence broadcasts in Johannesburg for the last time.
The Creation Theatre in Oxford, England, stages a dramatic reading of a Gospel translation by Southern Cross columnist Fr Nicholas King SJ.
Catholic care worker Clare Kalkwarf, manager of the Blessed Gerard Care Centre in Mandini, Eshowe diocese, is murdered on April 7.
Long-time Southern Cross director Rupert Hurly dies on April 15 at 83.
Burundis Catholic bishops announce that no marriages will be blessed without the couple having taken an Aids test.
To coincide with Easter, National Geographic release the content of the gnostic Gospel of Judas.
Pope Benedict reveals that he became a priest after witnessing Nazi brutality.
Former Auxiliary Bishop Dominic Khumalo of Durban dies on April 27 at 88.

MAY
Pope Benedict visits Poland, including Auschwitz concentration camp.
Cardinal Napier says that former deputy-president Jacob Zuma should not become president because of his questionable moral qualities.
Education minister Naledi Pandor praises the Church-based Rural Education Access Programme (REAP) as a unique model for conscious empowerment of young people.
The movie version of The Da Vinci Code is released. Official Catholic reaction ranges from antipathy to indifference.
Indian Cardinal Ivan Dias is named new prefect of the Vaticans Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.
The Canon Law Society of Southern Africa is formed at St Augustine College in Johannesburg.
Prolific writer of Letters to the Editor V.G. Davies dies on May 22 at 94.
New South African figures reveal that reported abortions since their legalisation in 1997 are about to exceed 600,000.
Bishop Michael OShea, vicar-apostolic of Ingwavuma, dies during an operation on May 30.
Fr Claudio Rossi SJ, formerly of Johannesburg and cousin of Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington, dies in a freak accident in Palestrina, Italy, on May 31.

JUNE
Bishop Mlungisi Pius Dlungwane is appointed bishop of Mariannhill, the diocese he had served as auxiliary for six years.
Reflecting on the 30th anniversary of the Soweto uprisings, national youth chaplain Fr Michael Hagan calls on South Africas youth to remember the events of June 16, 1976.
The archdiocese of Cape Town launches preparations for its first synod.
The SACBCs Aids Office criticises a call by health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for greater government oversight into Aids funding for NGOs.
Merrilyn de Gersigny resigns as director of Birthright after 30 years at the helm.
Africas Catholics are called to discuss how their faith can contribute to reconciliation, justice and peace, in preparation for the African Synod.
The Episcopalian (Anglican) Church in the US elects its first woman bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Johannesburg Catholic Bill Lynch is awarded the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year title in Monte Carlo.

JULY
World renowned painter Fr Frans Claerhout of Tweespruit in the rural Free State dies on July 4 at 87.
Pope Benedict travels to Valencia, Spain, to close the 5th World Meeting of Families.
Radio Veritas moves into new state-of-the-art studios in Edenvale, Johannesburg.
Pope Benedict and several Church structures and leaders, including the SACBC, criticise the violent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, whose diocese includes Medjugorje, urges six alleged Marian visionaries to stop claiming that Mary had been visiting them for 25 years.
Pope Benedict authorises the Vatican Secret Archives to release all the documentation from the pre-World War 2 pontificate of Pope Pius XI.
An African congress on liturgy is held in Kumasi, Ghana.
Jesuit Father Frederico Lombardi succeeds Joaquin Navarro-Valls as Vatican spokesman.

AUGUST
The bishops of Southern Africa issue a pastoral statement that forbids priests from acting as sangomas or traditional healers.
Cardinal Jan Willebrands, Dutch architect of post-Vatican II ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and the worlds oldest cardinal, dies on August 2 at 96.
Cardinal Napier says a Mail & Guardian headline referring to himself and victims of paedophile priests amounted to a trial by media.
Archbishop James P Green is named new apostolic nuncio to Southern Africa, taking up his office in Pretoria in November.
The Constitutional Court declares the abortion law invalid, but the law remains provisionally in effect until it is revised by parliament.
Church leaders warn of potential civil war in Cameroon.
Cardinal Bertone says the Churchs warnings about invading Iraq have proven to be prophetic.
The sacristy of St Agnes church in Woodstock, Cape Town, is destroyed in a suspected arson attack.
Pope Benedict delivers a strong warning against environmental damage.
Chinese authorities release Bishop Francis An Shuxin after ten years in detention.
Apartheid-era law & order minister Adriaan Vlok apologises for atrocities committed by police under his command in the 1980s.
After meeting Pope Benedict, the head of the Lefebvrist Society of St Pius X says there has been no substantial progress on reconciliation with Rome.
Pope Benedict visits his home province of Bavaria in Germany.

SEPTEMBER
Muslims take offence at a lecture by Pope Benedict in Regensburg, Germany, in which he quoted a medieval emperors opinion of Islam. The pope later apologises for offence taken, and meets with Muslim leaders in the Vatican.
Consolata missionary Sister Leonella Sgorbati, 65, and her bodyguard are assassinated in Mogadishu, Somalia. 
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone succeeds Cardinal Angelo Sodano as the Vaticans secretary of state (de facto prime minister).
Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg is named the 2006 Person of the Year by the US-based National Hospice and Palliative Care Organisation and the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa for his Aids work.
Italian exorcist Fr Gabriele Amorth says that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin might have been possessed by the devil.
The Vatican gives its OK to the SACBCs adaptations to the Roman missal.
Durban Catholic Zayn Nabbi participates in the first Survivor SA series and chooses a rosary as his one permitted luxury item.
Cardinal Napier criticises a wishy-washy statement on same-sex unions by the South African Council of Churches.
A Lefebvrist group in the French archdiocese of Bordeaux reconciles with the Vatican.
The SACBC issues a pastoral statement on the family, bemoaning among others the secularisation of society that they say is eroding the traditional family.
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti is appointed the Vaticans new foreign minister.
Fr Ralph de Hahn of Cape Town is awarded Rotary Internationals highest honour, and also takes first prize in a Poetry Institute of Africa competition.
Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo is excommunicated after illicitly ordaining four bishops in Washington, DC.
The SACBCs Justice and Peace Department criticises a spate of killings of Somali shopkeepers in Cape Town.

OCTOBER
The SACBC announces plans to hold a national Pastoral Forum next August to give the laity an opportunity to express itself.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminster criticises the anti-Catholic BBC over a documentary on sexual abuse which accuses Pope Benedict of cover-ups.
A new book cites fresh scientific evidence challenging claims that the Shroud of Turin is a fake.
The choir of Holy Rosary School in Johannesburg travels to Italy, performing before Pope Benedict.
Pope Benedict announces that the 2008 Synod of Bishops will focus on the Bible in the life of the Church.
Mgr Stephen Brislin is appointed new bishop of Kroonstad.
The SACBC presents its objections to the legalisation of same-sex unions to a parliamentary portfolio hearing.
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale reacts angrily to a robbery at Johannesburgs Christ the King cathedral.
Pope Benedict canonises four new saints.
Following North Koreas nuclear tests, South Korean bishops say the only path to peace is through dialogue and patience.
Author Deacon Billy Walbrugh dies of cancer in Stellenbosch on October 31 at 65.

NOVEMBER
Radio Veritas calls for mass support as it prepares to apply in April for a permanent licence to broadcast on medium wave.
A high-powered international Catholic-Jewish dialogue meets in Cape Town, focusing on issues surrounding Aids.
Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes is named prefect of the Vaticans Congregation for Clergy.
Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo says that an inter-church statement on the situation in Zimbabwe had been manipulated by the Mugabe government. He later says that more people are dying of starvation and disease each week than are killed in conflict in Iraq or Darfur.
The Vaticans de facto health minister says that Pope Benedict has received a report on condoms and Aids that reflects an enormous rainbow of theological and moral positions.
Lebanese government minister Pierre Gemayel, a Maronite Catholic, is assassinated, fuelling fears of a renewed civil war in the country.
Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane announces plans to retire on January 31, 2008.
The Vatican says that Saddam Husseins death sentence should not be carried out. 
Pope Benedict visits Turkey, where he prays in a mosque, calls dialogue with Islam an obligation, and meets with the Orthodox patriarch. The Turkish press hails his visit a success.

DECEMBER 2006
Archbishop James P Green, the papal nuncio to Southern Africa, presents his credentials to President Thabo Mbeki, pledging the Churchs commitment to reconciliation and development.
A Burundian investigative journalist claims that the murder of Archbishop Michael Courtney, nuncio to Burundi, in 2003 was planned by former government leaders of that country. 
Christian Aids activists, including the Aids Desk of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, criticise claims that 500 people were cured from HIV through herbal remedies.
A Catholic priest, Fr Raymond Gravel, is elected to Canadas parliament.
The United Nations praises Catholic efforts to curb the spread of Aids in Southern Africa.
A UN war crimes court senttences Fr Athanase Serombe to 15 years in jail for his involvement on the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Archaelogists say they have found the tomb of St Paul in Romes basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls.