Who are South Africa’s Three Cardinals?
Top left: Pope Paul VI and Cardinal Owen McCann in 1965. Top right: Pope Francis with Cardinal Wilfrid Napier in September 2013. Bottom: Cardinal Stephen Brislin greets the Holy Father during the SACBC bishops’ ad limina visit in June 2023.
The first local cardinal was Owen McCann, archbishop of Cape Town from 1950-84. Born in 1907 in Cape Town, he was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Paul VI on February 22, 1965. Cardinal McCann had been the editor of The Southern Cross in the 1940s, before he became a bishop. In his retirement, he served a second term as editor, from 1986-92, making The Southern Cross the world’s only publication to have been edited by a future and serving cardinal. Cardinal McCann was the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), from 1961-74.
Wilfrid Napier was the archbishop of Durban when he became South Africa’s second cardinal, receiving the red hat from Pope John Paul II on February 21, 2001. Born in 1941 in Swartberg, he became the bishop of his home diocese of Kokstad in 1980 and archbishop of Durban in 1992. Cardinal Napier served twice as SACBC president, from 1988-94 and 2003-06.
Stephen Brislin was the third South African to receive the red hat on September 30, 2023. He was installed as bishop of Kroonstad in 2006 and archbishop of Cape Town in 2010. He was SACBC president from 2013-19. Read an interview with Cardinal Stephen Brislin
Published in the September 2023 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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