The Past and the Future
Dear Reader,
Smiling from our cover this month is a young man of prodigious talent and a seriousness about his vocation in music that belies his age. Dale de Windt is an example of what is possible when one is dedicated and follows God’s guiding hand to fulfil the gift of one’s talent.
Dale has been accepted to study for his master’s degree at the prestigious Royal College of Music in London. We wish him well as he prepares for his life-changing move to England, and ask you to keep in your prayers this young man, and all young people who are following their dreams.
On May 29, South Africans will head to the polls to elect their new national and provincial governments. In this issue, three articles encourage all eligible citizens to exercise their right (and duty) to vote. And this time, every vote could count.
Indications are that the African National Congress will lose its majority in the National Assembly and even in some provinces, as might the Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape. This would necessitate the formation of coalitions, with small parties potentially tipping the scale. Therefore it is crucial that we choose the beneficiaries of our votes with utmost care.
The first World Day of Children will be held on May 25-26 in Rome. It was initiated by Pope Francis, who also inaugurated the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, held in July. Among many things, Francis will be remembered as the Pope of the Family.
To prepare us for the World Day of Children, Lois Law of the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office gives us an overview of the state of childhood in South Africa. Some of the realities should shock us. The question is: What are we going to do about it?
There was a time when celebrity was measured not by the work on one’s body but by the body of one’s work. It may be a slight exaggeration to claim that GK Chesterton was to the first third of the 20th century as the Kardashians are to the first third of the 21st, but the Catholic writer certainly was a household name, at least in Britain and its dominions. When he died in June 1936, it even made the front-page of The Southern Cross.
To mark the 150th anniversary of Chesterton’s birth, the always erudite Catholic journalist Christopher Altieri has written a reflection on the writer for The Southern Cross. He concludes that Chesterton’s ability to maintain friendships even with ideological opponents holds an important lesson for us today, in our polarised world.
This year Lesotho celebrates the bicentenary of the Basotho nation. Into that young nation came Fr Joseph Gérard, a French Oblate of Mary Immaculate who faced many challenges in his ultimately successful mission to bring the Catholic faith to Basotho, also to those in South Africa. Fittingly, he is our Saint of the Month, with a poster.
Bl Gérard was a man ahead of his time but also of his time in that he had certain attitudes of white superiority. That paradox was common among the early missionaries, as a new book by Prof Philippe Denis OP shows. We review it on page 21.
Our “History in Colour” feature on the back-cover pictures an important pioneer missionary, the magnificently-named Fr Jakobus Hoendervangers. He was the first resident priest of Bloemfontein and, by all accounts, quite a character. It is important that we remember those who built the Catholic Church in Southern Africa.
This is also the final instalment of the “History in Colour” series, with a new feature taking its place as of the June issue. We will publish a spread of some of the best colourised photos in the series next month.
Thank you for reading The Southern Cross, and please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine.
God bless,
Günther Simmermacher
(Editor)
- What is the Cross on Our Cover? - September 18, 2024
- Late Actor Sello Motloung was a Devout Catholic - September 17, 2024
- Who are South Africa’s Three Cardinals? - September 12, 2024
