From Our Vaults 80 Years Ago: December 13, 1939

by Tamar SC · December 13, 2019

Every week for the duration of our 100th year, we dig out an old issue of The Southern Cross from our vaults, and highlight a few stories from that edition, as well as reproducing its front-page.

Four new Jo’burg priests

Bishop David O’Leary of Johannesburg ordained Frs Plesters, Hughes, Mason and Williams in the packed Kerk Street pro-cathedral. The new priests had studied for the priesthood under the guidance of Bishop O’Leary at the seminary in Aliwal North. Fr Frederic Mason is a former editorial staff member of The Southern Cross.

Granny Dimple is dead

Cecilia Coker, better known to young Southern Cross readers as the Children’s Corner’s “Granny Dimple”, died suddenly of a stroke as she was going to confession at Wittebome parish in Cape Town. She is survived by her husband and two sons.

The big difference

In his editorial, Mgr John Colgan writes that “when the Catholic faith dies, or seems to die, and then springs into life again, it is always the same Catholic faith. It does not die in one shape and come to life in another. With Protestantism it is different. It has a way of running to seed. It trails off into something quite new—Christian Science, Spritualism, New Thought etc.”