The Southern Cross every day
For five days, The Southern Cross published a daily edition to cover the great Eucharistic Congress in Cape Town in celebration of the centenary of St Mary’s cathedral and the establishment of the Southern African Hierarchy. (This was the final issue of The Southern Cross Daily.)
Pope Pius XII speaks to SA
As a grand climax to the Congress, Pope Pius XII broadcast a message to a crowd of about 30000 gathered for the final Benediction outside Cape Town’s St Mary’s cathedral. The pope said that “the Church in the Union of South Africa has come of age. Its growth has been steady, solid and secure. Schools are flourishing; you have your Catholic press and seminary; there are hospitals and orphanages for the suffering and needy members of the Body of Christ.”
Eucharist on the streets
About 20000 Catholics, singing hymns and saying the rosary, marched from the foreshore to St Mary’s cathedral, providing the thousands who lined Adderley Street with a stirring witness to the Catholic faith in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
Editorial: Nearer to God
In his editorial, Mgr Louis Stubbs notes that the greatest blessing of the Congress has been “the intensification of the spiritual life among the people”, aided by “the many parish missions in the weeks before the Congress [which] had brought many nearer to God than they had been for a long time”.
Published in the April 2026 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
- Pope Leo XIV Denies “Tyrant” Comment was Directed at Trump - April 20, 2026
- From Our Vaults 75 Years Ago: April 30, 1951 - April 20, 2026
- Pope Leo XIV in Angola: A Call for Social Justice and Resource Equity - April 20, 2026
