The Stories of Our Church

by Gunther Simmermacher · Published July 27, 2022 · Updated July 27, 2022

Dear Reader,

On the cover of this issue, we see the faces of 48 people. They have been among the many who have guided our local Church as part of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference since it was established 75 years ago. Of those, all are bishops, except six — four priests and two religious Sisters — who have been among those who served, or are currently serving, the SACBC’s general secretariat. Every diocese in our conference region is represented, some more than once.

Two of these bishops once worked for The Southern Cross: Cardinal Owen McCann, twice as editor in the 1940s and ’80s, and Bishop Hugh Boyle, formerly of Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, as an editorial assistant in the 1920s.

For many readers, it will be a fun exercise to try and identify these faces. To put names to the faces, go to www.scross.co.za/2022/07/the-bishops-on-our-cover. But take time to study these faces, and give thanks to God for their service to the Church. And pray for our bishops, for being one is not only an honour but also a heavy burden.

The cover accompanies our focus on the SACBC to mark its 75th anniversary. We provide a brief history of the SACBC, but the centrepiece is our wide-ranging interview with its president, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka.

The interview will run over three issues.

If South Africa had something like a national cathedral, the church of Regina Mundi in Soweto would have a good claim for it — even its foundation stone was blessed by a future pope! It is most famous as a symbol of struggle, a reputation that extends far beyond the Catholic Church and South Africa. But it is also an active parish church, serving a Catholic community like countless other churches do. Daluxolo Moloantoa tells the story of Regina Mundi on page 10.

The Saint of the Month in August is close to our hearts at The Southern Cross, because he was a man of media. The life of St Maximilian Kolbe has so many remarkable moments — of faith, joy, struggle, disappointment, courage, martyrdom. At the centre of it was Christian witness. St Maximilian’s evangelisation efforts included founding media outlets to spread the faith.

Evangelisation, of course, is also the mission of The Southern Cross. And here we must understand that term not only as telling the Good News to those who haven’t heard it or are deaf to it.

We all, even the most faithful Catholics, need to be evangelised constantly — to help us grow in our faith, to strengthen it, to equip us to take our own evangelising mandate into the world.

Catholic media — printed, radio, digital — is indispensable to the Church’s evangelising mission. So we are always delighted to see people in parishes being part of the social communications apostolate by promoting The Southern Cross in their communities. An effective way of doing so is to actively sell the magazine before and/or after Mass. One friend who does so is John Tumisiime at Christ the King cathedral in Komani/Queenstown. You see him in action in the photo on this page. Let John represent all our friends in the parishes who work to get this Catholic magazine to the people as all of us at The Southern Cross say: THANK YOU!

And thank you for reading The Southern Cross. Please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine, as a favour to us and a favour to them!

God bless,
Günther Simmermacher
(Editor)