The Southern Cross Visits Pretoria’s First Catholic Mission

by Daluxolo Moloantoa · March 20, 2023

The Southern Cross visited the Most Holy Redeemer Church in Mmakau Village, north of Pretoria this past Sunday. The church’s parishioners were excited to see the magazine and are looking forward to having the magazine being sold at the church.

The Most Holy Redeemer Mission is the first Catholic church in a black settlement in Pretoria. It is sometimes referred to as the “Mother Church” because from its very beginning, the founding Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI) priests and Stigmatine Fathers who followed made a conscious decision to use it as a base to spread the Catholic faithin the surrounding and far-flung areas.

Over sixty outstations, in townships such as Garankuwa and Oukasie in Brits, and villages such as Ten Morgen and Fafung in the North-West province were founded by priests assisted by lay people in those areas.

Today over sixty of the former outstations are fully-fledged parishes. A very unique and distinguishing factor of Most Holy Redeemer Mission is that it is the only church in South Africa that has the footprints of two future saints. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini visited the parish on his South African tour in 1962. Less than a year later he was made a pope. Today he is canonised and known as St Pope Paul VI.

St Teresa of Kolkata visited the Church on her South African tour in 1988. Most Holy Redeemer’s centenary milestone in 2020 was previously reported in The Southern Cross, and you can read about it here: https://www.scross.co.za/2020/06/most-holy-redeemer-parish-in-north-west-provence-turns-100/