Klerksdorp Parishioners Struggle with Doorless Church

by Kilian SC · March 9, 2019

St Joseph and Our Lady of Fatima parish in Wedela, Carletonville, operates from a basic, leaky shelter. The parish has a church site and plan but urgently needs funds to start building.

A parish in the diocese of Klerksdorp is appealing for help in building a church, so that Mass no longer has to be celebrated in a doorless shelter.

The parish of St Joseph and Our Lady of Fatima in Wedela, Carletonville, already has a church site and plan in place—but not enough funds to start building.

“We urgently need assistance in the form of a donation to build a church,” said priest-in-charge Fr Tom Maretlane.

“The parish has been in existence since the early 1980s when it was still an outstation, with very few parishioners,” he said.

“The congregation grew as the area developed and started worshipping in school classes, halls, under trees and in a tent.”

But none of these were permanent or adequate solutions.

“We eventually built a shelter but that is not helping at all because when weather conditions are unfavourable, it also becomes inhospitable,” Fr Maretlane said.

“It is just a shelter; there are no doors, no proper windows, and when it is cold, parishioners stay away from Mass for health reasons,” he noted.

The shelter doubles as a garage for the priest’s car at night, and a place of worship by day. It also serves as the presbytery.

“We have a church site and plan, and we have also raised some money for the building,” Fr Maretlane said. But since the community is poor, the funds raised so far are not enough to build a church where the parish can live their faith as a community, regardless of the weather.

Fr Maretlane can be contacted on 053 441-3112 or 073 578-6553, or at Donations of any size can be paid into the FNB account St Joseph and Our Lady of Fatima Parish, Account Number 62776608253, Fochville branch.