200-Year Jubilee: Bishops’ Mass and Street March

The bishops of Southern Africa will celebrate a joint Mass in Pretoria to mark the jubilee of the bicentenary of the Catholic Church in South Africa on January 28, while Catholics in Cape Town are called to join a jubilee Eucharistic procession in early February.

The bishops’ Mass will be celebrated in Pretoria East’s church of the Beatitudes, and all are invited to take part in the celebration.

Message from the Pope, Mass on Air

A recorded message from Pope Francis will be aired, and the special candle distributed at the opening Mass on June 25, 2017, will be lit in every cathedral in South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland. Bells will be rung as a symbol of solidarity of faith.

The SACBC is working with Radio Veritas to have the Mass broadcast on air.

The Eucharistic procession in Cape Town will take place on Sunday, February 4, the archdiocese’s patronal feast of Our Lady of the Flight into Egypt.

Led by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, the 2km “prayer-walk” will start at Holy Cross church in Nile Street, District Six, and conclude at St Mary’s cathedral where the archbishop will give Benediction.

Participants will gather at Holy Cross parish at 14:00. After introductory prayers, the procession will follow the Blessed Sacrament as of 14:30.

Own transport will need to be arranged, and ample parking is available at Holy Cross.

Eucharistic Procession

In a letter addressed to clergy and religious in the archdiocese, Archbishop Brislin said that the procession will be “a wonderful opportunity for clergy, consecrated persons and parishioners to participate in as it is an outdoor event and we are not confined by the size of a building”.

He said that the purpose of the procession “is to give witness to the Catholic Church in Southern Africa over these past 200 years and more”.

In light of the procession’s theme, on the “importance of marriage and family in the life of the Church and society”, Archbishop Brislin encouraged the faithful to “come as families — parents, children, grandparents and so on”.

The Church in South Africa was formally established when Pope Pius VII erected the Vicariate of the Cape of Good Hope in June 1818, with Benedictine Bishop Bede Slater as its first bishop.

From Cape Town the Church spread into what is now the Eastern Cape and then to KwaZulu-Natal, and from there inland.

Today, the Catholic Church in the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) region — which comprises South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland — consists of 28 dioceses and one vicariate apostolic.

The jubilee celebrations will culminate on June 10 with Masses throughout the country.