Year-end Review 2013

It was the Year of Faith, during which Pope Benedict suddenly resigned and Pope Francis launched a new style of papacy, the reform of the Roman curia began, the world’s Catholic youth gathered in Rio de Janeiro, and the bishops of South Africa opposed the Information Bill, corruption and Gauteng’s e-tolls. GÜNTHER?SIMMERMACHER looks back at 2013.

JANUARY
The minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, announces that Mmadikgetho Komane of the Catholic Glen Cowie High School in Limpopo was 2012’s top matriculant in state-funded schools. Catholic schools nationwide achieved a pass rate of 86,3%, some 12% higher than the national average. Catholic schools offering the IEB?obtained a pass rate of 99,4%.
Cape Town priest Fr Ralph de Hahn publishes a book of poetry, titled On Poetic Wings, to raise funds for the archdiocese’s church building fund.
The Church in the United States marks the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs Wade, that legalised abortion.
The Vatican announces that 2,3 million people attended papal events in Rome in 2012.
Sean Patrick Lovett, South African head of Vatican Radio’s English service, is presented with the prestigious Daniel J Kane Religious Communication Award from the University of Dayton in Ohio.
Ireland’s plan to legalise abortion is met with the country’s largest-ever pro-life demonstration, attracting 25,000 people in cold Dublin weather.
Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town begins his tenure as president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The vice-presidents are Archbishop Jabulani Nxumalo of Bloemfontein and Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of Mthatha.

FEBRUARY
Pope Benedict unexpectedly announces his abdication from the papacy on February 11, taking effect on February 28, citing failing strength to exercise the Petrine ministry.
Because of South Africa’s experience of apartheid, the country can offer solidarity to Palestinians, says Fr Peter-John Pearson of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office after he visits the region as part of an advocacy group.
The Right 2 Know campaign praises Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban for his “bold and refreshing comments” made in the media in opposition to the government’s Information Bill.
German businessman Ernst von Freyberg, 54, is appointed head of the Institute for the Works of Religion, or Vatican Bank.
Australian Natural Family Planning pioneer Dr Evelyn Billings dies on February 16 at the age of 95.

MARCH
On March 14 the cardinals elect Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76-year-old archbishop of Buenos Aires, to the papacy. He is the first pope from the southern hemisphere.
Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley, liaison bishop for Justice & Peace, calls for “serious dialogue on the underlying causes” for the rape crisis in South Africa, while Holy Trinity parish in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, adopts the Kwanele Kwanele anti-rape campaign launched by the city’s McAuley House Catholic school.
According to the US network ABC, Cardinal Napier was the most active of at least nine cardinals on Twitter in the pre-conclave period.
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg tells Vatican Radio that while the Church is facing a “virulent attack by secularism”, it must also address its own scandals.
Christians in the Central African Republic are systematically targeted by armed rebels seeking to overthrow the government of President François Bozizé, according to priests in the region. The situation will deteriorate after Mr Bozizé flees the country.
Responding to Cardinal Napier’s controversial interview with the BBC, Cardinal Napier and SACBC?president Archbishop Stephen Brislin release statements in which they uphold the Church’s position that “sexual abuse of children is a horrendous crime against children, their families, the Church and society”.
Argentinian Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel denies that Pope Francis as Fr Jorge Bergoglio was complicit in crimes committed by the military junta in the 1970s, saying the future pope worked behind the scenes to help those persecuted by the regime.

APRIL
The bishops of the Inter-Regional Meeting of Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa (Imbisa) meet with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to urge him to allow a free and fair election this year. They later meet with Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza to ask for his assistance in ensuring a peaceful election in Zimbabwe.
Veteran educationist and anti-apartheid activist Sr Aine Hardiman OP dies at the age of 87.
At a general audience in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis stops to hug a child with cerebral palsy. The image goes viral on the Internet. Soon it becomes normal for the pope to embrace children.
Pope Francis forms an inner cabinet of eight cardinals to advise him on reforms of the Roman curia. It is coordinated by Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga.
The SACBC expresses regret that the State Information Bill has been passed by parliament, saying South Africa needs greater openness, not secrecy, to fight corruption.
Curial Archbishop Vincenzio Paglia says the cause for murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero, of which he is the promoter, is now “unblocked”.
The bishops of Southern Africa approve new Afrikaans translations for Eucharistic prayers I-IV.
An Israeli court approves the construction of Israel’s separation wall on land owned by Salesians near Beit Jalla in the occupied West Bank.
Bishop Zithulele Patrick Mvemve of Klerksdorp resigns after heading the diocese for 19 years.

MAY
Sacred Heart Father Zolile Peter Mpambani of Queenstown is appointed bishop of Kokstad. He is ordained in August.
Five are killed and 60 injured as St Joseph’s church in Arusha, Tanzania, is bombed by terrorists during its inauguration ceremony.
The archdioceses of Pretoria and Cape Town launch the Mission in the Square, a series of public events in the respective city centres initiated by the Neocatechumenal Way.
The president of the German bishops’ conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, joins other German prelates in proposing some form of women’s diaconate.
More than 40 people take part in The Southern Cross’ pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Rome and Assisi, with Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria as spiritual director.
Pope Francis presides over his first canonisation, that of Mexican St Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala (1878-1963).
Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan says that the civil war in Syria is the result of Western nations carrying out a geopolitical strategy to split Middle Eastern countries.
A fire destroys the historic hall of Holy Family College in Parktown, Johannesburg.
The Vatican recognises a miracle attributed to Bl John Paul II, the cure of a brain aneurysm of Costa Rican Floribeth More Diaz, paving the way for his canonisation.
The metropolitan bishops of Southern Africa publish their book God, Love, Life and Sex.
Mgr Paul Nadal, 81, of Durban raises R187,000 by walking the 300km-long Camino de Santiago de Compostela in support of the Denis Hurley Centre.
American Fr Michael Perry, 58, is elected new minister-general of the Franciscans.
Zimbabwe-born Cape Town priest Fr Anthony Mutetwa, 34, is killed when a truck hits him as he is pushing his stalled car on the N2 on the morning of May 28.
US author and sociologist Fr Anthony Greeley dies on May 29 at the age of 85.

JUNE
Churches worldwide hold an hour-long simultaneous Eucharistic adoration called for by the Vatican.
The 109-year-old parish centre of Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral is demolished to make way for the new Denis Hurley Centre.
This year’s Comrades ultra-marathon is won by Claude Moshiywa, a member of St Margaret’s parish in Diepkloof, Soweto.
It is announced that Pope Francis will break with tradition and not go to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo this year.
Dominican Father Mike Deeb, coordinator of the SACBC’s Justice & Peace Department, is appointed the Dominican Order’s permanent delegate at the United Nations, taking office on January 1, 2014.
Polokwane’s vicar-general Fr Jeremiah Masela is appointed the diocese’s new bishop. He is ordained in September.
Buckingham Palace announces that South African-born Redemptorist Father Cyril Axelrod, who is deaf and blind, will be awarded the OBE medal in November.
Pope Francis and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby meet at the Vatican. It is the first meeting of the two leaders, both of whom are new in their jobs.
A flash flood closes the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France for the second time in eight months.
Pope Francis creates a five-person commission to review the activities and mission of the Vatican Bank.
Syrian priest Fr François Mourad is killed on June 23 defending nuns from an attack by Islamist rebels at a monastery in Ghassenieh. An Internet video purporting to be of the priest’s beheading is a fake.
Educator and catechist Sr Natalie Kuhn dies at 82 on June 27.

JULY
Pope Francis issues his first encyclical, titled Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith), crediting Pope Benedict XVI?with having written the  greater part of it.
Pope Francis’ first official trip outside Rome is to the Italian island of Lampedusa where he tosses a wreath into the waters in memory of the estimated 20000 Africans who have died in the past 25 years trying to reach Europe.
Deacon Greg Garnie of Johannesburg is elected vice-president of the International Diaconate Centre.
Noting that more than 50 young men have died in this year’s initiation season due to botched circumcisions, Fr Mluleki Mnyaka of Port Elizabeth calls on the Church to become more involved in providing pastoral care to initiates and their families.
The Winter Theology series of lectures hosted by the Jesuit Institute is delivered by Fr John Moffatt SJ.
Mgr Leo Cushley, who served in the Pretoria nunciature from 2006-11, is appointed new archbishop of Edinburgh.
Several churches throughout Egypt are attacked following the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi. According to reports, many churches were protected by Muslim neighbours.
At least 38 pilgrims from Naples are killed in a bus crash near the southern Italian town of Avellino after visiting Padre Pio’s birthplace in Pietrelcina.
On his first foreign trip as pontiff, Pope Francis also visits Brazil’s Marian shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida.
World Youth Day is held in Rio de Janeiro, with Pope Francis presiding. Because of rain, the closing Mass for 3,2 million people has to be moved from a site outside the city to Copacabana beach.
It is announced that WYD 2016 will be held in Krakow, Poland.
On his flight from Rio, Pope Francis gives an unscripted Q&A?session with journalists on board.
Irish President Michael Higgins signs a law that legalises abortion.

AUGUST
Education for Life celebrates its tenth anniversary in South Africa with a youth rally in Durban.
Catholic poll monitors declare Zimbabwe’s elections, won by Zanu-PF, flawed but peaceful.
The bishops publish A Story Worth Telling, a book that details the activities of the Church in Southern Africa, dedicated to Cardinal Napier.
Two Slovenian archbishops quit over a financial scandal.
Margherita Blaser, mother of Radio Veritas’ Fr Emil Blaser OP, dies on August 11 at the age of 108.
The Cabra Dominicans celebrate 150 years in South Africa.
Sr Madge Karecki is appointed new president of St Augustine College, South Africa’s Catholic university, to succeed Fr Michael van Heerden.
After 28 years in South Africa, the Spanish Dominican community in Bethlehem, Free State, relocates to Zambia.
The Vatican orders a change in the wording of the baptismal rite to emphasise that the sacrament formally brings a person into the Church.

SEPTEMBER
Pope Francis names Italian Archbishop Pietro Parolin, 58, as the Vatican’s next secretary of state to succeed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who is retiring in October.
Romanian Mgr Vladimir Ghika is beatified 59 years after dying from cold and hunger in a communist prison.
It is expected that the cause for the beatification of Benedict Daswa, the martyr of Tzaneen diocese, will be heard in the Vatican in October 2014 after it was fast-tracked.
Writing in the Italian daily La Repubblica, Pope Francis addresses atheists with a desire for “sincere and rigorous dialogue”.
It is announced that St Augustine College will sell its Victory Park, Johannesburg, campus and no longer offer undergraduate courses.
A priest from Verona presents Pope Francis with a 1984 Renault, which the pope promptly takes for a spin.
Congolese Sr Angelique Namaika is awarded the Nansen Refugee Award bestowed annually by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg, Germany, stirs a huge  controversy over excessive spending on his residence and diocesan buildings and extravagant travelling. After meeting Pope Francis in October he takes a leave of absence from the diocese; in November he pleads guilty to committing perjury and pays a fine.
More than a hundred people are killed in a suicide bomb attack on All Saints church in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Pope Emeritus Benedict writes a public letter to Italian atheist leader Piergiorgio Odifreddi in which he reiterates that he sought action against clerical sex abuse.
Franciscan Father Matthew McDonald, a former lecturer at St John Vianney Seminary and chaplain to students at the University of Pretoria, dies in Ireland on September 24.
CPLO director Fr Peter-John Pearson describes the latest crime statistics released by the government as some of the worst numbers in almost a decade.
A second Southern Cross pilgrimage departs for the Holy Land, Rome and Assisi, led by Bishop Joe Sandri of Witbank.
Pope Francis announces that Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be canonised on April 27, 2014. He waives the requirement for a recognised miracle for Bl John XXIII.

OCTOBER
Pope Francis has his first meeting with his group of eight cardinal advisers on Church governance, and formally constitutes them as a permanent Council of Cardinals.
In a pastoral letter issued to coincide with the ecumenical anti-corruption campaign EXPOSED, the bishops of Southern Africa say that corruption is stealing from the poor and call on people to refrain from corrupt acts.
Croatian Father Miroslav Bulesic, who was murdered in 1947 by communist partisans, is beatified. Later in the month, 500 Spanish Civil War martyrs are beatified.
The Southern Cross publishes an anthology of columns in the newspaper by Chris Moerdyk, titled Moerdyk Files.
Pope Francis calls an extraordinary synod of bishops to discuss “the pastoral challenges of the family in the context of evangelisation” in October 2014. In preparation, bishops are asked to consult the laity on their experiences.
Catholic academic and political activist Colin Gardner dies at the age of 79 in Pietermaritzburg on October 10.
St Anthony’s Home for marginalised children in Blaauwbosch, Dundee diocese, celebrates its 50th anniversary.
The adoption of a detailed new law on fiscal transparency, vigilance and information almost completes a three-year revamping of Vatican finance law.
Receiving the original statue of Fatima in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis formally entrusts the world to Mary’s protection.
Fr Tshepo Motaung of Bethlehem diocese is killed at the age of 34 in a car crash on October 18.
The Vatican rules out a Catholic funeral for Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke. He is buried by the traditionalist Society of St Pius X instead.
A Malaysian court rules that the country’s Catholic newspaper, The Herald, may not use the word “Allah” to name God.
In a statement signed by Bishop Abel Gabuza, the SACBC?opposes the manner in which e-tolls in Gauteng have been implemented, calling the process flawed and suggesting that Catholics might consider a boycott.

NOVEMBER
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies honours Fr Stephen Giles of Kroonstad as “a long-standing friend of the Jewish community of Kroonstad and a devoted champion of the Jewish heritage and legacy of that town”.
Dominican Father Stan Muyebe is appointed new coordinator of the SACBC’s Justice & Peace Department, to succeed Fr Mike Deeb OP.
A rocket hits the nunciature in Damascus, Syria. No injuries are reported.
The Vatican says that there is no evidence that it has been spied on by the US?National Security Agency.
Leading Irish Scripture and Holy Land scholar Fr Jerome Murphy-O’Connor dies on November 11 in Jerusalem at the age of 78.
At the Imbisa plenary session in Gaborone, the bishops of nine Southern African countries pledge to boost the family ministry.
The Imbisa bishops warn that new political conflict could erupt in Mozambique.
Responding to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the SACBC donates R500,000 for Caritas relief efforts.
In a message to the closing of the Year of Faith in Nazareth, Israel, Pope Francis encourages pilgrimages to the Holy Land, saying “before we can understand our own personal faith and need for Christ, we must go to the place and time where Jesus himself walked”.
Redemptorist Father Alec Reid, who played a central role in ending the decades-long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, dies on November 22 at the age of 82.
For the first time in recorded history, the bones of St Peter the Apostle are publicly displayed in Rome to mark the end of the Year of Faith.
Pope Francis releases his 50,000-word apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.
Bishop José Luis Ponce de León of Ingwavuma is appointed bishop of Manzini, Swaziland, to be installed in latre January 2014.

DECEMBER
On the death of Nelson  Mandela on December 5, the bishops of Southern Africa express gratitude “for the sacrifice he made for all peoples of South Africa and for the leadership and inspiration he gave in leading us on the path of reconciliation”.

Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria says that the crowd’s booing of President Jacob Zuma at the Mandela memorial in Johannesburg represents “a clash between the ideals the politicians were speaking of and the real world these people experience”.

Pope Francis announces that 2015 will be the “Year of Consecrated Life”, to begin in November 2014.

In an article published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the prefect of the doctrinal congregation, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, opposes moves by German bishops to allow some divorced and remarried Catholics access to Communion.

Faith leaders, including the Catholic Church, say that they must be in the forefront in encouraging peaceful rejection of e-tolling in Gauteng, which is implemented in early December.

Time magazine names Pope Francis its “Person of the Year”.

Brescia House school in Johannesburg is selected by technology giant Microsoft as one of 80 mentor schools around the world.

After being assaulted by racist thugs on the way to the Mandela funeral, Pretoria vicar-general Fr Victor Phalana says he forgives his assailants.

 

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