From Our Vaults 87 Years Ago: February 15, 1939

by Admin · February 24, 2026

The Southern Cross, February 15, 1939

The pope is dead

Pope Pius XI died on Friday, February 10, at 5:31am (Roman time) after a third heart attack. He was 81. The pontiff since 1922, Pius literally spent himself — often against the advice of his doctors — in the service of God and humanity. His last audible words are the key to his whole life: “We have still so many things to do… peace… peace.”

Motor car needed for docks

To further the work of the Apostleship of the Sea in Durban, the use of a motor car is now a necessity so that the chaplain can visit ships at the Point and Congella Docks. Several fundraising efforts are being planned.

Reader: Don’t criticise Nazis

In a Letter to the Editor, reader G Weidler berates editor Mgr John Colgan for criticising Nazi Germany and those in fascist Italy who espouse Nazi philosophies. “As a priest and a man you are entitled to your own opinions, but as the editor of a purely Catholic newspaper, serving Catholics of all nationalities, you have no right — it is certainly tactless — to hurt millions of Italians and Germans.” In his response, Mgr Colgan writes that “there can be no peace between the Catholic Church and the Germany of the Nazis until there is a change of heart in Germany’s rulers. The Catholic Church cannot alter principle or revealed truth.”

Editorial: A high-souled pontiff

In his editorial on the death of Pope Pius XI, Mgr John Colgan writes that “in one of the most critical times in her history [with the rise of fascism and communism], God gave to his Church a great and high-souled pontiff. To the simple faithful [Pius] was father and shepherd of their souls. [But] mighty leaders passed him by in scorn — that scorn which the Pharisees of old had for his Master.”

Published in the February 2026 issue of The Southern Cross magazine