Schooling and Faith

by Gunther Simmermacher · Published February 23, 2024 · Updated February 23, 2024

Dear Reader,

Welcome to this thicker-than-usual issue of The Southern Cross, in which several Catholic schools showcase their impressive successes in the latest round of matric results. We congratulate the Class of 2023 on its achievements, and salute especially their educators, the unsung heroes in society.

In their adverts, several Catholic schools picture their top-performing matriculants. Sadly one of them will not be able to see his portrait in print. Declan Murphy of St Benedict’s in Johannesburg died in a tragic accident on December 28. May his soul rest in peace.

In this issue, we encounter the remarkable Inkamana College in the rural KZN diocese of Eshowe. Incredibly, this rural school regularly places in the national Top 10 for matric results, and has recorded a 100% pass rate every year but one since 1969!

For families with children of school-going age, the stresses are many, especially when both parents are working or only one parent is present. In our busy lives, exercising a healthy faith regimen can be difficult — perhaps more so when caring for children forms part of the daily routine. Our article on page 12 may help parents, and thus their kids, in going through the school year with faith.

In a way, our article on how to deal with offspring who have abandoned their faith is related to that. Two women with experience in having children who dropped the faith offer tips on how to handle this difficult situation.

Our cover story this month is on the phenomenal series The Chosen, whose fourth season has just launched. I have been impressed with the first three seasons of this show about the events described in the Gospels.

In particular, actor Jonathan Roumie, a devout Catholic, captures perfectly how I imagine the man Jesus. In this issue, we provide a background to the The Chosen; next month we will feature Jonathan Roumie himself.

Besides The Southern Cross, there is no other publication in the world that can claim to have been edited by a future cardinal and by an actual cardinal. Both were the same man: Cardinal Owen McCann, who died 30 years ago this month. Two years after vacating the editor’s chair in 1948, he became the bishop of Cape Town. Two years after retiring as archbishop of Cape Town, he returned to the editor’s seat, now as a cardinal. And two years after leaving that post, he went to his eternal reward.

So I have the honour of counting a cardinal among my predecessors. And my immediate predecessor, Michael Shackleton, served the cardinal as his private secretary in the mid-1960s. Mike has many great memories from that time, and he shares some of them with us in this issue. I had a good laugh when I read the anecdote of Cardinal McCann and the cigar.

For Holy Week, Prof Michael Ogunu tells us the history of the Stations of the Cross. The night before Our Lord was made to walk on the Via Dolorosa to suffer his awful death, he sat on a rock in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood and praying that he might evade his horrible fate.

That rock still exists, in the church of All Nations, which this year marks its centenary. Read its history and about the amazing architect who built it, Antonio Barluzzi, on pages 26 and 27.

And lastly, if you bought this issue at your church or in a Catholic bookshop, you will have noticed that the cover price has increased to R40. We know that no price increase is ever welcome, but this is the first one since we relaunched as a magazine in October 2020. That is 3 ½ years without a change in cover price!

We trust that our readers will understand that with the rapidly increasing costs of printing and distribution alone, raising our cover price has been absolutely necessary (and, as our accountants tell us, long overdue). We hope that you will regard The Southern Cross as being of excellent value even at the new cover price.

Your loyalty is much appreciated!

Thank you for reading The Southern Cross, and please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine.

God bless and Happy Easter!

Günther Simmermacher
(Editor)