Year-end Review 2014

It was the year in which Pope Francis called an extraordinary Synod on the Family, two popes were canonised and another beatified, the Middle East blew up in crisis, a woman was invalidly ordained in Hermanus, South Africa re-elected Jacob Zuma whose home improvements created controversy, and the cause of Benedict Daswa received a massive boost. GÜNTHER?SIMMERMACHER looks back at 2014.

JANUARY
President Zuma offers to donate R500,000 through his foundation towards the translation of a Catholic Zulu Bible. After being criticised as electioneering, the donation is turned down.
African Missionaries Father Sébastien Ndrutsomi, 37, of Witbank diocese dies in a car crash.
Catholic schools again shine in matric exams: schools writing the national exams had a 91% pass rate (national rate: 78,3%); Catholic schools writing IEB exams had a 99,4% pass rate.
In the first nine-and-a-half months of Pope Francis’ pontificate, 6,6 million people took part in papal events at the Vatican, the Holy See announces.
During the baptism of 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel, Pope Francis encourages mothers to breastfeed their hungry infants, even during the Mass.
Archbishop Stephen Brislin and Fr Peter-John Pearson, both of Cape Town, are part of a group of bishops visiting Gaza and the West Bank in solidarity with suffering Palestinians there.  
Southern Africa’s bishops meet in Manzini, Swaziland, to celebrate the centenary of the first missionaries arriving in the country.
Bishop José Ponce de Leòn is installed as bishop of Manzini. He also continues to serve as administrator of the vicariate of Ingwavuma, KwaZulu-Natal.
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference publishes a book, Catholic Responses to Aids in Southern Africa, edited by Sr Alison Munro OP and Fr Stuart Bate OMI.

FEBRUARY
The diocese of Tzaneen holds a 12-hour vigil in prayer for the cause of Benedict Daswa. Night vigils are also held in Polokwane, Witbank, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein,  Klerksdorp and Kimberley.
Franciscan Father Vincent Zungu is appointed new bishop of Port Elizabeth, succeeding the late Bishop Michael Coleman. He is installed on June 28.
The archdiocese of Durban marks the tenth anniversary of Archbishop Denis Hurley’s death on February 13 with a series of events.
Actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who died on February 2 at 47, is buried from St Ignatius church in New York.
A court rules to defer the building of  Israel’s separation wall through property owned by Salesians in the Cremisan Valley, near the West Bank city of Beit Jalla.
Church leaders in the Central African Republic emphasise that the country’s civil conflict is not about religion.
In a pastoral letter for the May 7 election, the SACBC calls on Catholics to be guided by what “our Christian faith teaches us”.
In a pastoral letter on 20 years of democracy in South Africa, the SACBC and Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life notes advances but also condemns violence and corruption.
Gender activist Sally Gross, formerly Dominican Father Selwyn Gross, dies on February 14 at 60.
The Kolping Society opens its first new South African branch in 62 years with a foundation in Johannesburg.
A US court sentences 84-year-old Sr Megan Rice to 35 months in jail for defacing the walls of a Tennessee nuclear facility in a protest action.
Pope Francis establishes the 15-member Council for Economics, which includes seven laymen as well as Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, and the Secretariat of Economics, headed by Australian Cardinal George Pell, to implement the council’s decisions.
The theologian consultors of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes approve a miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI, clearing the way for his beatification on October 19.
In an iPhone message to evangelical Christians, filmed by South African-born Bishop Anthony Palmer, Pope Francis says all Christians are to blame for divisions.

MARCH
Archbishop Lawrence Henry, who headed the archdiocese of Cape Town from 1990-2009, dies suddenly at 79.
Pietermaritzburg-born Fr Peter Smith is appointed auxiliary bishop of Portland, Oregon.
In a controversial speech, praised by Pope Francis, Cardinal Walter Kasper outlines to the world’s cardinals how Communion for some divorced and remarried Catholics can be possible.
Pope Francis opens the gardens that surround the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo to the public.
Pope Francis accepts the resignation of German Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg, who had been under fire for extravagant spending and committing perjury.
CPLO director Fr Peter-John Pearson says that the office of the Public Protector must be protected after its head, Thuli Madonsela, was attacked over reports critical of the SABC?and the Independent Electoral Commission.
An Irish abuse survivor, Marie Collins, is among four women appointed to the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Catholic churches report persecution after Russia’s annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine.

APRIL
An SACBC statement says that President Zuma’s decision not to respond promptly to the “Nkandla Report” issued by the Public Protector “undermines both the Public Protector’s office and Parliament”.
The Church and the world mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
Dutch Jesuit Father Frans van der Lugt, 75, is beaten and shot dead by Islamic terrorists outside the Jesuit residence in Homs, Syria, on April 7.
Queen Elizabeth II of England visits Pope Francis in the Vatican.
Patriarch Emmanuel-Karim Delly, who headed the archdiocese of Baghdad for much of the US?war on Iraq, dies on April 8 at 86.
In an international conference on Human Trafficking, Pope Francis strongly condemns modern slavery.
Pope Francis issues an apology for cases of sexual abuse in the Church.
The Church in Nigeria demands the return of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted by the terrorist group Boko Haram.
Fr Sicelo Vilakazi TOR, 34, of Eshowe dies on April 20 in a car crash.
Pope Francis canonises Popes John XXIII and John Paul II in the Vatican. A group of Southern Cross/Radio Veritas pilgrims travel to Italy for the occasion.
The bishops of Southern Africa meet Pope Francis and members of the Roman curia during their ad limina visit.

MAY
Archbishop Brislin leads a group of Southern Cross pilgrims on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Italy.
Latin Patriarch Faoud Twal of Jerusalem demands an end to vandalism against Christian, Muslim and Druze sites by Jewish fundamentalists.
A total of 2500 people take part in the annual Fatima procession in Johannesburg.
Thanks to a R75,000 donation from the SACBC, the diocese of Rustenburg has been able to provide immediate relief to those affected by the long platinum strike.
The Holy Family Sisters celebrate the 150th anniversary of their presence in South Africa.
Pope Francis visits Jordan, Israel and the occupied West Bank. In Jerusalem he and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew mark the 50th anniversary of the mutual excommunication of their Churches.

JUNE
The SACBC?begins a process of restructuring, creating a new Council for Evangelisation comprising six departments.
Pope Francis meets with 50,000 Catholic Charismatics in Rome’s Olympia stadium.
A Catholic, Bongmusa Mthembu, wins the Comrades Marathon, clutching a rosary in his mouth as he crosses the finishing line.
Pope Francis, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres meet in the Vatican for an invocation for prayer for peace.
A newly constructed residential block is blessed at St John Vianney Seminary in Pretoria.
Southern Cross news editor Claire Mathieson leaves the newspaper and is succeeded by Stuart Graham.
Precious Blood Sister Mary Paule Thacke, 82, is murdered in Mthatha. Two suspects are apprehended.
Ursuline Sister Cristina Scuccia, 25, wins the talent competition The Voice Italy — and leads the live audience in the Lord’s Prayer.
Argentina’s football team brings a larger-than-life photo of the squad with Pope Francis to the World Cup in Brazil. They finish second, losing in the final to Germany.
Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, falls to the Islamic State terrorist movement, which continues a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Christians and other minorities.
On a visit to southern Italy, Pope Francis said that members of organised crime are “excommunicated”.
Poland’s bishops hold a penitential service for the cover-up of clerical abuse.
The Vatican laicises Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, former nuncio to the Dominican Republic, who is accused of sexual abuse of minors. In August he is placed under house arrest, pending a trial.

JULY
Catholic leaders in the Holy Land condemn Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land and its collective punishment of Palestinians.
Archbishop Stephen Brislin says that Israel’s bombing campaign in response to rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas is “disproportionate”. About 2000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, are killed in weeks of bombing of Gaza by Israel which also destroys much of the area’s infrastructure. During the same period, six?Israeli civilians are killed by Hamas rockets.
A Holy Cross child-care project in Botshabelo, Bloemfontein, comes to a standstill after being robbed for the sixth time this year.
World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland, will focus on Divine Mercy, organisers announce.
All religious Catholic processions are suspended for two years in the archdiocese of Cosenza-Bisignano, in the Italian region of Calabria, after Marian processions were misused to pay respect to crimelords.
The General Synod of the Church of England votes to authorise the ordination of women bishops.
The papal astronomer, Br Guy Consolmagno SJ, is awarded the prestigious Carl Sagan Prize by the American Astronomical Society.
Just over a week after visiting South Africa, Pentecostal Bishop Tony Palmer, a friend of Pope Francis who was raised in South Africa, dies in a motorbike accident in England on July 20.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, a Sudanese Catholic woman who was sentenced to death in Sudan because of her faith, is released and allowed to leave the country after intense international pressure.
Pope Francis visits a Pentecostal church in Casserta, Italy — a historic first for a pope.
South Africa’s  first Catholic Media Expo is held at Holy Rosary School in Edenvale, Johannesburg.

AUGUST
The bishops of Southern Africa decide at their mid-year plenary in Mariannhill to establish a council of the laity.
The SACBC?condemns plans to have pornography broadcast by satellite provider Top TV.  
The Vatican decides after a nine-year study that the Sign of Peace will stay where it is in the Mass.
The Church marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Pope St Pius X and the outbreak of World War I within days of one another.
Bishops in Nigeria, Liberia and other West African countries suspend the Sign of Peace over ebola fears.
The SABC?breaks an agreement with the local Church to cancel the broadcast of the papal Christmas Mass. The national broadcaster refuses to explain its decision.
ISIS?terrorists behead US journalist James Foley, a Catholic, and upload a video of the killing on the Internet. He is the first in a succession of Western journalists and other hostages to be beheaded.
Pope Francis visits South Korea to beatify 124 martyrs. On the way to Seoul he is the first pope to fly over Chinese air space.
Pope Francis reveals that before every foreign trip, he visits his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Eric Tyacke, founder of the South African branch of the Young Christian Workers movement, dies on August 20 at 89.
Sr Madge Karecki resigns as president of St Augustine College, South Africa’s Catholic university, after less than a year in charge, for health reasons.

SEPTEMBER
South Africa’s oldest priest, Mgr Anthony Seba of Cape Town, dies on September 2 at 101. He was a priest for 76 years.
Sean Lovett, the Cape Town-born head of Vatican Radio’s English service, leads a course in media for the bishops of Southern Africa.
Pupils from Selborne Primary School in East London take part in a worldwide Google Hangouts event with Pope Francis.
Paddy Kearney, coordinator of the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban, is among this year’s “Living Legends” awardees of the eThekwini municipality.
Dioceses across Southern Africa hold a week of prayer for peace in the Middle East.
A Durban couple, Steve and Sandra Conway of Retrouvaille, are among 14 couples appointed to serve as non-voting auditors in October’s extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family.
After 84 South Africans are killed in the Synagogue Church of All Nations disaster in Lagos, Nigeria, Archbishop William Slattery warns that with 6,000 independent churches in South Africa, “we must look for genuine religious leaders”.
A group of Southern Cross pilgrims, led by Bishop João Rodrigues of Tzaneen, leave for a Marian pilgrimage of prayer for the cause of Benedict Daswa to Portugal, Spain and France.
Pope Francis dismisses Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano as ordinary of the Paraguayan diocese of Cuidad del Este following an apostolic visitation in July.
English Mill Hill Father Brendan Sullivan, a frequent visitor to Cape Town who from 1986-96 provided pastoral care for the Catholics on St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha islands, dies in England on September 22 at 91.
Pope Francis makes a one-day visit to Albania.

OCTOBER
The extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family is held in Rome. A mid-term report that features open language on matters such as welcoming homosexuals in the Church causes controversy.
In a submission to the synod, Liberian Bishop Anthony Fallah Borwah says that his compatriots are being “treated like scum” over ebola, an epidemic he says is tearing at the nation’s fabric.
At the end of the synod, Pope Francis beatifies Pope Paul VI, who headed the Church from 1963-78.
The nine theologian consultors of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes vote unanimously to recognise Benedict Daswa as a martyr. At the same time, however, the cause and the beatification plans are running on very low funds.
A lower court in Pakistan upholds the death sentence for “blasphemy” imposed in 2010 on Catholic mother Asia Noreen Bibi. The verdict is appealed.
Thousands of pilgrims travel to the Schoenstatt shrine in Germany to mark the movement’s 100th anniversary. Events are also held at South African shrines.  
Franciscans from around the world meet at the Padre Pio Centre in Pretoria for a Peace Gathering Conference.

NOVEMBER
Pakistani Christians Shazad Masih, 28, and his pregnant wife Shama Bibi, 24, are abducted by a mob, tortured and burnt to death over alleged blasphemy.
Prince Charles of England calls on Islamic leaders to speak out against persecution of Christians by Muslims.
The bishops of Southern Africa issue a pastoral statement which calls on the faithful to accept the Church’s teachings on women priests.
In a curial reshuffle, Pope Francis names English Archbishop Paul Gallagher new foreign minister, succeeding Archbishop Dominique Mamberti who takes over the Apostolic Signature after the appointment of Cardinal Raymond Burke as patron of the Knights of Malta. Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea is the new prefect of the Congregation for Worship.
A priest, Fr Guyo Waqo, is among five people found guilty in a Kenyan court for the murder of Bishop Luigi Locati in 2005.
Fr Victor Phalana is named new bishop of Klerksdorp. He is ordained in January 2015.
Pope Francis canonises six new saints,including Indians St Kuriakose Elias Chavara and St Euphrasia Eluvathingal.
Cardinal Napier is named one of four presidents of the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family.
Pope Francis makes a short trip to Strasbourg, France to address the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
Pope Francis visits Turkey where he meets with Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and visits the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.
The Church begins the Year of Consecrated Life on November 30; it will run until February 2, 2016.

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