New Director for Catholic Hosted France Pilgrimage

Following the sad passing of Bishop Giuseppe Sandri of Witbank, The Southern Cross has appointed popular Johannesburg priest Fr Lawrence Ndlovu (pictured) to lead its pilgrimage to Catholic France in October.

Bishop Sandri, who led a Southern Cross pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Italy in 2013, was scheduled to lead the 2019 pilgrimage to France.

Fr Ndlovu, parish priest of Our Lady of Peace church in Roodepoort, has written for many publications and appeared frequently on television. His 2018 collection of poetry, In Quiet Realm, has been critically acclaimed. Last year he wrote the prestigious Southern Cross Christmas editorial.

Fr Ndlovu lectures part-time in theology at St Augustine College, is chair of the Choral Music Archive NPC, and a trustee of the St Augustine Education Foundation Trust.

In 2016 he was listed by the Mail & Guardian in its Top 200 Young South Africans. The same year he received the Youth Trailblazer Award from the Gauteng provincial government for his outstanding contribution to youth development.

“Fr Lawrence will be a superb spiritual director on this special pilgrimage,” said Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher.

“We will remember Bishop Sandri in a very special way on this pilgrimage, and dedicate it to his memory,” he said, adding that Fr Ndlovu had served with the late bishop on the bishops’ liturgy committee.

The Catholic France pilgrimage will include Lourdes, Nevers, Paris, Avignon, Orléans, Carcassone, Montpellier and Bourges, as well as sites associated with St Eugene de Mazenod, founder of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, in Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence, and Paray-le-Monial, where the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus originated.

For more information go to www.fowlertours.co.za/sandri or contact Gail at 076 352-3809 or