The Story of SA’s First Nuncio
Archbishop Gijlswijk’s handwritten blessing for The Southern Cross’ staff, directors and readers in the issue of March 3, 1923, and the front-page of that edition announcing his arrival in late April.
100 Years Papal Representation in SA –
A hundred years ago, on April 13, 1923, a Dutch Dominican archbishop set sail for South Africa. At his destination, the whole region’s Catholic Church was keenly — and in some cases anxiously — awaiting his arrival on April 30, for Archbishop Bernard Jordan Gijlswijk came to serve as the first papal representative to the region.
That was a big deal — so big that a hundred years later, the bishops of Southern Africa are celebrating the centenary of papal representation in our region. The Southern Cross covered Archbishop Gijlswijk’s appointment by Pope Pius XI extensively, even interviewing the newly-ordained, 52-year-old archbishop at his residence in The Hague, Netherlands.
The interview was conducted by Fr Pierce, who had been providentially waylaid in Holland en route to Rome. In the issue of March 3, 1923, the priest described meeting the apostolic delegate. “My old heart was going pitty-pat” as he rung the doorbell, Fr Pierce wrote. But the nerves calmed when Archbishop Gijlswijk opened the door. “His smile, his cordial welcome, his strong and hearty handshake, put me at ease immediately.”
Archbishop Gijlswijk assured the readers of The Southern Cross that “the Church has a glorious future awaiting her in South Africa”. The Southern Cross, still only just over two years in existence, “is destined to play an important role” in that future, he predicted, before handwriting a special blessing for the newspaper, its staff and readers. He was speaking from some experience, having visited the country in 1921-22, when Pope Benedict XV was still alive.
Receiving an apostolic delegate, he said, “is a reward for the good that has been done during the past by all the Catholics in the land, irrespective of class or colour. You are now much more united to Rome and the pope.”
Caribbean posting
Archbishop Gijlswijk was born on November 9, 1870, in the Dutch town of Delft, and ordained to the priesthood as a Dominican in 1898. He was sent to serve on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, then (as now) a Dutch possession, for the following two decades. In October 1921, the Holy See sent Fr Gijlswijk on a visitation to the Dominican Sisters in South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe).
His extensive written report of that tour, and his work within Dominican structures, impressed the Vatican so much that it was decided to name him the first apostolic delegate to the Southern African region. He was ordained an archbishop on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, on December 8, 1922. His priestly ordination 14 years earlier had been on the feast of the Assumption.
Archbishop Gijlswijk’s arrival in South Africa came almost exactly a century after the first Dominican, Fr Nelissen, had arrived in Cape Town in 1822. The order had spread out widely across the region, making huge contributions to the Church, by the time the Dutch Dominican archbishop landed in Cape Town’s port.
Spats with bishops
Based in Bloemfontein, the archbishop’s brief from Pope Pius XI was to foster a local Church with indigenous vocations — a call to transformation which some of the older bishops at the time resisted. In his early years especially, the apostolic delegate was often authoritarian, confrontational and even ruthless in asserting his vision and position, resulting in rough clashes with some bishops.
When Archbishop Gijlswijk arrived in 1923, there were very few black priests and not a single locally-born bishop. The latter would change in 1925 with the appointment of Bishop David O’Leary OMI to head the vicariate of Transvaal.
While the rise of a black clergy would take much longer, Archbishop Gijlswijk was a driving force in transforming South Africa’s Catholic Church by advancing the training of black clergy and catechists and the recruitment of indigenous Sisters, encouraging the creation of uniform catechetical material in local vernacular, promoting missions and their schools, and so on.
Messages from POWs
During World War II, South African prisoners-of-war in Italy sent messages home via Vatican Radio and then broadcast through Archbishop Gijlswijk’s Bloemfontein offices throughout South Africa. Nearly 50000 messages were delivered that way to worried loved ones.
Archbishop Gijlswijk, who had once hoped to die on his beloved Curaçao, would serve the rest of his life in South Africa. After 22 years of service, he died suddenly in office on December 22, 1944.
His successor and fellow Dutchman, Archbishop Martin Lucas, a Divine Word Society priest, took office in September 1945. It was at his urging that the bishops of the various vicariates formed the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference in 1947, and under his watch the Southern African Hierarchy was established in 1951, and Our Lady of the Assumption declared South Africa’s patron.
Including outgoing nuncio Archbishop Peter Wells, a total of 14 papal representatives have been appointed to Southern Africa. Some are remembered with great fondness — most notably the future Cardinal Edward Cassidy (1979-84) — while some others will not have monuments built for them. Few made quite as decisive an impact on Southern Africa’s Church as Archbishop Bernard Jordan Gijlswijk.
Published in the April 2023 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
- Smartphones Swapped for Dumbphones at Holy Rosary School! - October 9, 2024
- Neocatechumenal Way Pilgrimage to Bl Benedict Daswa Shrine - October 9, 2024
- Who May Conduct a Communion Service? - October 8, 2024
