Year-end Review 2012

It was the year in which Pope Benedict opened the Year of Faith, the world’s bishops discussed the New Evangelisation and the Church celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II. The VatiLeaks scandal grabbed the headlines, and in South Africa Radio Veritas finally went on air on medium wave while social conflict culminated in the Marikana killings. Gunther Simmermacher looks back at 2012.

JANUARY
The Vatican announces that 26 missionaries were killed in 2011  one more than the previous year. Meanwhile, it is reported that 2,5 million people saw Pope Benedict at papal events in 2011.
Three men between the ages of 19 and 24 are arrested for the November 22 murder of Fr Senzo Mbokazi in Melmoth, Eshowe diocese.
The matric pass rate in Catholic schools for 2011 was 88,3%  lower than the previous year but significantly higher than the national pass rate of 70,2%. The 26 Catholic schools that write the IEB examinations achieved a 99,9% pass rate, also higher than the national rate.
St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria begins a new academic year under the guidance of newly installed rector Fr Molewe Simon Machingoane.
The local edition of the Youth Catechism, or YouCat, is produced by Mariannhill Mission Press.
Christians around South Africa protest against the proposed introduction of pornographic channels on subscription-only station Top TV.
The bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo call for the results of the country’s December elections, won by incumbent Laurent Kabila, to be scrapped because of voting irregularities.
A group of Catholic leaders and theologians call on Catholic Republican primary candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes, especially when referring to President Barack Obama.

FEBRUARY
The bishops of Southern Africa condemn the education crisis in the Eastern Cape.
The Vatican downplays corruption allegations made on Italian television, based on a leaked letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, written when he was secretary-general of the commission governing Vatican City.
At a Mass marking the 15th anniversary of the legalisation of abortion in South Africa, Fr Peter-John Pearson, director of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office (CPLO), calls for burning anger about this holocaust, referring to the estimated million abortions since 1997.
On behalf of the SACBCs Professional Conduct Committee, Fr Desmond Nair of Durban presents a paper at a four-day international symposium in the Vatican on the local response to the abuse of minors by clergy.
The Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries in KwaZulu-Natal is placed under administration, with the congregation’s vicar-general Fr Bheki Shabalala CMM appointed administrator.
Syriac Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan warns that deposing Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad might lead to the persecution of Christians.
In a joint operation between the CPLO and the Jesuit Institute, daily Lenten reflections are e-mailed to parliamentarians and other interested people.
A high-profile US?federal lawsuit accusing Pope Benedict of covering up the sexual abuse of minors is withdrawn.
The Hope&Joy network launches a smartphone app offering a replica of the Stations of the Cross.
Some 80 bishops, clergy and other participants take part in a joint conference in the Vatican by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar and the Council of European Bishops Conferences to explore cooperation between the churches of the two continents.
Franciscan Sisters Priscilla Katase and Winifred Mosololi of Assisi Farm near Bloemfontein are presented with the Emerging Farmers Award during the Master Dairy Association of South Africa awards.
Pope Benedict creates 22 new cardinals, including former nuncio to Southern Africa, Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro.

MARCH
Mgr Georg Ratzinger, brother of Pope Benedict, publishes a book of memories of life with his sibling, titled My Brother, the Pope.
Benedictine Sister Dolores Hart, dressed in her black habit, is in the audience at the Academy Awards as a documentary on the movie star-turned-nun is nominated for an Oscar.
Terrorist attacks on Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have tripled in a seven-year period, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy Sees permanent observer to United Nations offices in Geneva, tells the UN Human Rights Council
Italian Archbishop Mario Cassari is appointed apostolic nuncio to Southern Africa. He previously served in the Pretoria nunciature as secretary from 1985-89.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York says that White House officials have failed to consider the US bishops concerns that a federal mandate governing employer coverage of contraception and sterilisation under the health care law violated religious freedom principles.
Ten people are killed in a bomb attack during Mass on a Catholic church in Jos, Nigeria.
Belgian Trappist monks Westvleteren 12 beer, with an alcohol content of 10,2%, is rated the worlds best beer by California-based Ratebeer.
Pope Benedict visits Cuba, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the shrine of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, and Mexico.
A TV commercial for Red Bull which joked about Jesus walking on water is pulled following protests from Christians and Muslims.
Sr Hermenegild Makoro CPS takes over as secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC), with Fr Grant Emmanuel, formerly of Durban, as associate secretary-general.
Catholics protest after 5FM?disc jockey Gareth Cliff calls Pope Benedict a sleazy old man.

APRIL
Radio Veritas begins its broadcasts on the 576 medium wave frequency in the Gauteng area on Easter Sunday.
The Redemptorists celebrate the centenary of their arrival in South Africa.
Fr Edwin Gariguez from the Philippines is named one of six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, which carries a $150000 award, for his long work in preventing a nickel mining operation from starting up in the island of Mindoro.
President Jacob Zuma places a wreath on Archbishop Denis Hurleys tomb in Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral and describes the late archbishop as a hero.
Pope Benedict describes sex tourism and the trafficking of human beings for harvesting organs evils that must be dealt with urgently since they trample on the rights of millions of men and women, especially among the poor, minors and handicapped.
National youth chaplain Fr Sammy Mabusela CSS is the victim of an attempted hijacking in Brits, Gauteng.
Norbertine Father Pierre-Adrien Toulorge, who was guillotined during the French Revolution in 1793, is beatified in Coutances.

MAY
Fr Andrew Cox of Constantia, Cape Town is assaulted, stabbed, tied up and locked up overnight in a robbery.
Pope Benedict formalises the recognition of German 12th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen as a saint.
The worlds oldest bishop, Vietnamese Bishop Antoine Nguyen Van Thien, dies on May 13 in France at the age of 106. French Bishop Gery Leuliet is now the oldest at 102.
Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, the spokesman of the SACBC, says the furore over the painting The Spear by Brett Murray has exposed a number of fault lines in our South African civic discourse and voices concern at the use of the language of race.
Italian television journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi publishes a book, Sua Santita (Your Holiness) based on a large collection of leaked documents, setting off the so-called VatiLeaks scandal. Soon after, the papal valet Paolo Gabriele is arrested on suspicion of having leaked papal documents to Mr Nuzzi.
Free and fair elections in Zimbabwe will be impossible until political reform has been accomplished, Fr Oskar Wermter SJ of Harare warns.
Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) show that The Southern Cross ranks fifth among 14 audited weekly newspapers in sales of digital editions, ahead of Sunday Independent, and the Saturday editions of Pretoria News, Weekend Argus, Beeld and Die Burger.

The 7th World Meeting of Families takes place in Milan.
The 50th International Eucharistic Congress is held in Dublin.
The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith warns that US Sr Margaret Farleys 2006 book, Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, contains erroneous propositions on homosexual acts, same-sex marriage, masturbation and remarriage after divorce. In a short time, the book moves from 1,42,982th place among all titles sold by amazon.com to number 15 on the list of Amazon best-sellers.
A delegation of Iraqi parliamentarians meets with the CPLO during their visit South Africa to explore the post-apartheid social rebuilding process.
The Vatican announces that Vatican Radio will end its short- and medium-wave broadcasts to Europe and North and South America as of July 1 and close its multi-lingual Vatican Information Service, saying the services are now available via the Internet.
The new lectionary becomes available in Southern Africa.
A summit on corruption brings together religious leaders, NGOs, and a representative of the Public Protectors Office. The Catholic Church is represented by Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town.
A bomb attack during Mass on the cathedral of Zaria, Nigeria, kills ten people.
Bishop Peter Holiday of Kroonstad administers a blessing to President Zuma at the president’s request.
The first-ever conference on spiritual direction in an African context is held in Johannesburg, hosted by St Augustine College and the Jesuit Institute.
Black Consciousness activist and former priest John Sello Sebidi dies in Pretoria at 73.
Bishop Mogale Paul Nkumishe dies at 74 on June 29, just half a year after retiring as bishop of Polokwane. He was previously bishop of Witbank.

JULY
The relics of St John Bosco, founder of the Salesian order, begin a two-week tour of South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho.
Pope Benedict names German Archbishop Gerhard Muller prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
UNESCO?declares the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, a world heritage site. Catholic officials are concerned that the United Nations agency might not keep its promise of non-interference.
The Archdiocese of Pretoria stages its Eucharistic Congress.
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem alters a controversial caption which offers a less critical assessment of Pope Pius XIIs actions during World War II.
Tanzanian Fr Laurenti Magesa tours South Africa as this year’s presenter of the Jesuit Institutes Winter Theology.
Franciscan Father Stan Brennan, the founder of Boksburg St Francis Care Centre and Aids treatment pioneer, dies on July 6 at 83, just weeks after receiving a rare award from the Japanese government.
Pretoria Catholic Frank van Velzen serves as assistant coordinator for the Catholic chaplaincy during the Olympic Games in London.
Mgr William Lynn, 61, former secretary of clergy in the US diocese of Philadelphia, is sentenced to three to six years in prison after being found guilty on a charge of child endangerment. He is the first US priest to be convicted for failing to manage an abusive priest.
The Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town wins an appeal against a Home Affairs decision to close the local Refugee Reception Office.

AUGUST
The bishops elect their new three top officials: Archbishop Brislin as president, Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein as first vice-president, and Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha as second vice-president. They will assume their offices in January 2013.
Zambias government deports Rwandan Fr Viateur Banyangandora, apparently over comments the priest made about a dispute between the state and cotton growers.
The National Planning Commission presents its strategic plan for South Africa’s future, the National Development Plan, to President Zuma. CPLO research director Mike Pothier calls on the government to show the political will to implement the plan.
Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for the US?presidency, chooses Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate. It is the first time ever that both candidates for the vice-presidency  Mr Ryan and Democrat Joe Biden are Catholics.
A final thanksgiving Mass is celebrated before the demolition of Durbans old St Augustines School, which will make way for the Denis Hurley Centre.
The US archdiocese of Atlanta, Georgia, inherits 50% of the trademark and literary rights to Margaret Mitchell’s famous novel Gone With The Wind.
Bishop Louis Ncamiso Ndlovu of Manzini, Swaziland, dies suddenly on August 27 at the age of 67.
Speaking out after the Marikana shootings, Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg says that people are not simply killed. They are murdered.
The residence of Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart in Aleppo, Syria, is ransacked by rebels.
The iconic Regina Mundi parish in Moroka, Soweto, turns 50.
Cardinal Carlo Martini, one of the great Church leaders, dies on August 31 at 85 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.

SEPTEMBER
The Archdiocese of Johannesburg officially opens its newly-built chancery.
Catholics in Durban march in protest against abortion, following a similar procession in Cape Town in August.
Pope Benedict becomes the first pilgrim to sign up for World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro.
The Pan African Congress of Catholic Laity, the first since 1982 and only third overall, takes place in Yaound, Cameroon.
Yellow wristbands marking the Year of Faith are launched by Fr Desmond Royappen of Durban.
Sr Bernard Ncube, a former Company of St Angela nun, social activist and politician, dies on September 7 at the age of 77.
Pope Benedict visits Lebanon to launch the apostolic exhortation based on the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East in 2010.
Bishop Michael Paschal Rowland, the first bishop of the diocese of Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, from 1983 to 2005, dies on September 23 at 83.
The president of the Swiss bishops conference, Bishop Markus Bichel, calls for local bishops to have a greater say over Church reforms, including the admission of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to the Eucharist.
The German bishops’ conference issues a decree that excludes Catholics who opt out of paying Church tax from receiving the sacraments.
Subscription channel DStv officially refuses requests to include Catholic TV channel EWTN in its South African package. It is forced to reinstate EWTN in its Nigerian bouquet after protests.
Three people are killed in a suicide bomb attack on a Catholic church in the northern Nigerian province of Bauchi.

OCTOBER
Pope Benedict leads the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and launches the Year of Faith.
The world’s bishops meet in the Vatican for the Synod of Bishops for the New Evangelisation.
Paolo Gabriele is found guilty of aggravated theft in leaking papal documents. In November the Vatican court also convicts computer technician Claudio Sciarpelletti.
Seven new saints are canonised: Ss Kateri Tekakwitha, Jacques Berthieu SJ, Mother Marianne Cope, Pedro Calungsod, Fr Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Sr Carmen Salles Barangueras and Anna Schffer.
Pope Benedict proclaims St Hildegard of Bingen and 16th-century Spanish priest St John of Avila as Doctors of the Universal Church.
St John Vianney Seminary includes the prison ministry apostolates in its curriculum.
Margherita Blaser, mother of Radio Veritas station director Fr Emil Blaser OP, turns 108.
Marcello Di Finizio, 49, spends a day on the dome of St Peters Basilica in the Vatican to protest against Italy’s and Europes economic policies.
Nigerian Archbishop John Olurunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja is presented with the Pax Christi International Peace Award by Bishop Kevin Dowling.
Archbishop Henry Karlen, the Swiss-born former bishop of Umtata and Bulawayo, dies on October 28 at 90.

NOVEMBER
After an eventful year of difficult negotiations between the Vatican and the schismatic Society of St Pius X, the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei acknowledges a stalemate but says that talks will continue.
US President Barack Obama is re-elected; polls show that he won 50-51% of the Catholic vote against Mitt Romneys 47-48%.
Pope Benedict establishes the Pontifical Academy of Latinity.
Mgr Anthony Seba of Cape Town turns 100.
The Anglican Churchs new archbishop of Canterbury will be Bishop Justin Welby of Durham.
The Vatican laicises US-based priest Roy Bourgeois, 74, over his participation in an illicit ordination of a woman priest.
In the run-up to the ANCs elective conference in Mangaung in December, Bishop Barry Wood, liaison bishop for Justice & Peace, calls on the party’s members to vote for candidates that will have a positive impact on their communities, especially the vulnerable.
Pope Benedict publishes the third and final book in his Jesus of Nazareth series.
As the Church of England votes against allowing women to become bishops, Ellinah Wamukoya of Swaziland becomes the first female Anglican bishop in Africa.
Archbishop Brislin signs the decree that authorises the establishment of a Neocatechumenal seminary in Cape Town.
Pope Benedict creates six cardinals none from Europe including Archbishop Onaiyekan.
The Hope&Joy network winds down, having accomplished its objectives of helping local Catholics prepare for the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and the Year of Faith.

DECEMBER
Bishop Daniel Verstraete OMI, 88, who headed Klerksdorp diocese from 1965-94, returns to his native Belgium after 62 years in South Africa.
Pope Benedict XVI gets his own Twitter account, @Pontifex.
The Vatican calls for full Palestinian statehood after the United Nations vote to grant Palestine the status of non-member observer state.
Catholic jazz legend Dave Brubeck dies on December 5, a day before his 92nd birthday.
New rules on funding for Catholic charities, issued in a November 11 motu proprio by Pope Benedict, come into force on December 10. It permits government funding, as long as this does not entail conditions which conflict with Church teachings.
Pope Benedict promotes his personal secretary, Mgr Georg Ganswein, to the prefect of the papal household, and in January ordains him an archbishop.
Chinas government-controlled Catholic Church, the Patriotic Association, revokes the appointment of Shanghais auxiliary bishop, Thaddeus Ma, who during his ordination in July renounced his membership of the Patriotic Association.
Danny Hyams, the co-founder of Johannesburg’s Little Eden Society, dies at 91.
Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral parish takes over the Surat Building, owned by the Hindu Surat Association, for two years while the Denis Hurley Centre is being built.