History in Colour: May 1932

by Admin · March 26, 2021

Pictured are: (back from left) Owen McCann, Bernard Costello, Harold Doran, an unidentified student who left the seminary before ordination, Nicholas Watkins, (front) Jack Burke, Bishop O’Riley, and John Garner, the future archbishop of Pretoria. Bishop O’Riley lived until 1956, and was the principal consecrator of both Bishops Garner and McCann. (Inset) original photo).

A snapshot from the past, colourised exclusively for The Southern Cross

Today is the 27th anniversary of the death of Cardinal Owen McCann (26 June 1907 – 26 March 1994)

In May 1932 Bishop Bernard O’Riley of Cape Town (front centre) visited seminarians from his vicariate at Propaganda Fide College in Rome, just before his retirement in June that year.

In the group is young Owen McCann (back left), who would be ordained on December 21, 1935, then serve as Southern Cross editor from 1941-48 (and later again from 1986-91) before becoming bishop of Cape Town in 1950, and South Africa’s first cardinal in 1965.

He died in 1994. Pictured are: (back from left) Owen McCann, Bernard Costello, Harold Doran, an unidentified student who left the seminary before ordination, Nicholas Watkins, (front) Jack Burke, Bishop O’Riley, and John Garner, the future archbishop of Pretoria. Bishop O’Riley lived until 1956, and was the principal consecrator of both Bishops Garner and McCann.

This was published in the December issue of The Southern Cross magazine

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