Bishop Neil Frank OMI: A New Shepherd with a Mission
Bishop Neil Frank leads Mariannhill, South Africa’s second-most populous diocese. He spoke to Mauricio Langa CMM about his life, vocation and plans for his diocese.
For the new coadjutor bishop of the diocese of Mariannhill in KwaZulu-Natal, it has been a long way from the science of mining to being the shepherd of one of the biggest dioceses in South Africa. And in between, Bishop Neil Frank has served as an academic and as the first national provincial of his order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Bishop Frank was ordained coadjutor bishop of Mariannhill on February 26. His appointment came unexpectedly and caused him sleepless nights, he told The Southern Cross. When the apostolic nuncio informed him of the appointment, Bishop Frank was in a provincial council meeting. “I was taken aback by the news, and it has been a change from the life that I had been living as a religious,” he said. The news disturbed his sleep for weeks, he added.
It is also quite an unusual appointment, because Mariannhill still has a sitting bishop. However, Bishop Pius Mlungisi Dlungwane has stepped back from administrative roles; these were performed for a while by Archbishop William Slattery, retired of Pretoria. When Bishop Dlungwane retires, Bishop Frank will succeed him. Bishop Dlungwane will turn 75 on October 13, 2022, and by canon law must then submit his resignation to the pope. When the Holy Father accepts the resignation, Bishop Frank will automatically take canonical possession of the diocese.
The new bishop said he had been appointed with special faculties to be in full control of the administration and operations in the diocese, such as finances, pastoral work, and clergy and personnel. He said his priority is to work with the people and priests of the diocese. First and foremost, he will look at the reality of the diocese which is predominantly of a Zulu culture.
He sees an urgent need for the renewal of priesthood in the service of the Church in Mariannhill. “The priests are a sacramental representation of Christ in their ministry, and a lot of work needs to be done with renewal of the priesthood.” He will endeavour to develop sound working relationships with the presbyterium, and will meet with priests individually. Bishop Frank also seeks to address the socio-economic needs of the poor.
Modest beginnings
Born on August 21, 1966, in Pietermaritzburg, the bishop comes from a working-class background. His father, Horace Frank, started working at 15, first in a shoe factory and then as a machine operator at aluminium products manufacturer Hulamin. His mother, Mary, was mostly a housewife who for some time worked at her brother’s garage. Bishop Frank recalled that his childhood revolved around family, grandparents, and the local parish. Little Neil went to school during the apartheid era at government-funded Indian schools: Shri Vishnu, Gujarat Vedic and Mountain Rise Primary Schools. He matriculated in 1984 from Raisethorpe Secondary School, where he was head prefect and the dux.

Archbishop Siegfried Mandla Jwara of Durban, as principal consecrator, presents newly-ordained Bishop Neil Frank to the congregation at the episcopal ordination ceremony in Mariannhill in February. (Photo: Mauricio Langa CMM)
The idea of becoming a priest evolved from an early age, but he did not give much attention to it at the time. Bishop Frank said that growing up in a staunchly Catholic family “made it hard for me not to think of the priesthood”. His mother was a member of the Missionary
Associates of Mary Immaculate, and connected with the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The family did not live far from the Oblates’ pre-novitiate house, so often priests would visit his family home. “I’d look at the priest and wonder if that would be my calling,” he recalled.
“As a young person I felt a strong feeling of becoming a priest,” Bishop Frank said, and yet he did not follow that call but instead enrolled at the University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal). He recalled that at Raisethorpe he was the only Catholic student in class, and the top student. So most of his friends and teachers encouraged him to pursue university studies, as they saw his ability. “But each time I said I wanted to become a priest, my friends were not happy.”
At the University of Natal’s Durban campus, he went on to study physics. As he was beginning his master’s studies in 1989, the call to the priesthood manifested itself. He decided that he would join the religious life and priesthood. “I was even ready to quit my studies,” he recalled. In the event, he persevered with them and earned his master’s in 1991. At the time he was already working for De Beers Research Laboratories in Johannesburg, as the international mining corporation had awarded him a bursary from his second year. The Moosa Family Trust had covered the first year, since his parents could not afford to pay for his university fees.
Bishop Frank noted that his years at the university coincided with great awareness characterised by student activism. “In the 1980s there was a lot of political and social education, and we were largely part of the anti-apartheid movement,” he reminisced. It was in this context that he felt the strong call to religious life, and he decided to join the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Bishop Frank remembers the exact date: August 17, 1989. “It was a call that had been germinating over the years with lots of experiences,” he said. The decision to join religious life was a result of constant reflection and contemplation with regard to his future career. “I questioned myself: What am I going to do with my qualification; and where is my happiness?”
As part of the terms and conditions of the bursary, he worked for a year and a half as a scientific research officer. Bishop Frank recalled it as an exciting time in his life, working for such a prominent corporation but also in view of what was happening in the country at the time, with apartheid falling and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. “While working for De Beers, I was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and this was partly influenced by my activism days at the University of Natal,” he said.
After leaving De Beers, he finally joined the Oblates in 1991, making his first profession two years later, and his perpetual profession in 1998, while studying in Rome. On his 33rd birthday, on August 21, 1999, he was ordained to the priesthood.
After a few years of pastoral work, Bishop Frank went to India from 2004-06 to complete a master’s degree in philosophy. From 2008-10, he served as head of the philosophy department of St Joseph’s Theological Institute in Cedara, near Pietermaritzburg. Meanwhile, he pursued his doctoral studies, earning a PhD in 2014 from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The title of his dissertation: “In Defence of Synthetic A Priori Knowledge”.
While he was doing his PhD he lectured at St Joseph’s and served as parish priest at St Mary’s in Pietermaritzburg, from August 2012 to December 2014. From 2015-18 he worked full-time at St Joseph’s again and was appointed the president of the institute in September 2015. His term was not completed yet when in 2018 he was appointed the inaugural provincial of the newly-amalgamated Oblate province of South Africa and Zimbabwe.
He couldn’t finish that term either: in December 2021 came the news of his appointment as coadjutor bishop of Mariannhill. Clearly the Holy Father believed that the softly-spoken bishop has the leadership qualities necessary to take on such a complex appointment.
Challenges in Mariannhill
Bishop Frank noted that he is aware that some relationships between the diocese and the religious communities are very strained. Being a religious himself, he already feels a great affinity for the congregations within the diocese of Mariannhill. He knows the leadership of the religious communities in the diocese, especially through the Leadership Conference of Consecrated Life in South Africa (LCCSA). Having served on the LCCSA’s executive, he has had the opportunity to get to know and engage personally with the religious leaders of Mariannhill diocese.
Bishop Frank hopes to establish sound working relations with the religious communities in the diocese, such as the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries, Precious Blood Sisters and Daughters of St Francis of Assisi. He committed himself to paying regular visits to these communities as a way of re-establishing mutual cooperation, unity and fraternity between the diocese and congregations. “I look forward to engaging with all the religious communities in the diocese, in order to find and promote workable relations,” he said.
Bishop Frank also promised that he would support the cause for the beatification of Abbot Francis Pfanner, who with his diligent band of Trappists built the very foundation of the diocese of Mariannhill. The bishop undertook to work closely with the missionary congregations of
Mariannhill to realise the idea of a shrine devoted to Abbot Pfanner. He also hopes that there will soon be a return of pilgrimages — which were proscribed over the past two years by Covid-19 restrictions — especially to Mariannhill shrines such as Kevelaer.
Outside his busy schedule the bishop also finds some time for relaxation by visiting family and friends, reading, and watching sports such as cricket, soccer and rugby. But don’t pin any colours on him: “I do not support any particular team — except if it is a South African national team!”
This interview was published in the May 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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