Return of the Passion
Dear Reader,
At last, the Durban Passion Play will take to the stage from April 6-16, three years after the pandemic stopped its performance at a day’s notice. We salute the fortitude of the Durban Catholic Players Guild in starting all over again to make sure it will stage the “Oberammergau of Africa”, 71 years after it made its debut.
We published a brief history of the Durban Passion Play last month. In this issue, on pages 22-23, we meet some of the people who perform in it this year, including couples who found love thanks to the play. Our cover shows Jesus, played by Dale Collings, at the Last Supper.
The Durban Passion Play is performed every five years. There is an unexpected upside to the delay forced by the pandemic in 2020: if the Guild maintains its five-year rhythm, the play will be staged in 2033, the 2000th anniversary of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. And many of those taking to the stage this year will surely do so again in 2028, and even in ten year’s time.
We hope that in 2033, The Southern Cross will still be around to cover that very special jubilee. This year we have launched a series of events to promote The Southern Cross, starting in parishes in the archdiocese of Pretoria — whose Archbishop Dabula Mpako has been greatly supportive of our national Catholic magazine (see below left).
These promotions are spearheaded by Daluxolo Moloantoa, whose articles are familiar to regular readers. The excitement about The Southern Cross among people who never knew the magazine, or maybe had certain misconceptions about it, has given us, who produce the magazine, renewed energy. See some joyful photos from promotion campaigns below.
We are happy to make available sample copies of The Southern Cross for parishes who would like to run their own promotional campaign.
This issue is also one of “goodbye”, as we interview the outgoing papal nuncio, Archbishop Peter Wells. There’s no false sentiment in saying that he will be missed in our region, as a representative of the pope and as a good friend to the Church in Southern Africa and its people.
Archbishop Wells has been a most accessible and unassuming nuncio. Those who met him, having practised the formal address of “Your Excellency”, may have been taken aback when the archbishop introduced himself by his first name, as he so often did.
In that spirit, we wish His Excellency Peter well in his posting in Asia, and look forward to welcoming his successor.
And we thank you for reading The Southern Cross. Please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine, and ask you parish to promote it!
God bless,
Günther Simmermacher
(Editor)
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