Simmermacher / Year-End Review
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published December 31, 2018 · Last modified December 27, 2018
It was a difficult year for the Catholic Church, with the abuse scandal re-emerging and division within the Church deepening. But there were bright spots, such as the 200th anniversary of the Catholic Church’s...
Christmas / Church / Simmermacher
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published December 27, 2018 · Last modified December 24, 2018
25 questions to test your Christmas knowledge! Compiled by Günther Simmermacher 1 In which country was the Christmas hymn “Silent Night” written 200 years ago? a) Austria b) Germany c) Hungary 2 On which date...
Christmas / History of The Southern Cross
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published December 26, 2018 · Last modified December 18, 2018
The Christmas edition of The Southern Cross in 1958 was a bumper 32-page affair. GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER steps into a time-capsule from 60 years ago. In the 1950s, the Catholic Church in South Africa, as...
A great pop classic of the 1950s was recorded in the basement of a Catholic church, as GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER explains. One of the songs that gave the 1950s musical genre “doo wop” its name...
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published December 12, 2018 · Last modified December 3, 2018
A FUTURE OF FAITH: The Path of Change in Politics and Society, by Pope Francis with Dominique Wolton. Bluebird/Pan Macmillan. 2018. 324pp Reviewed by Günther Simmermacher Imagine you are at a dinner party, and...
November 10 marked the 75th anniversary of the execution of three anti-Nazi priests and a Lutheran pastor whose witness and friendship across sectarian lines inspired ecumenical relations, as GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER writes.
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published November 6, 2018 · Last modified November 8, 2018
A few random seconds made the difference between my writing these lines and never writing anything again.
Papal Canonisation / Pope John Paul II / Simmermacher
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published October 15, 2018 · Last modified October 19, 2018
Pope John Paul II makes his first appearance as pope following his election on October 16, 1978. (Photo: Arturo Mari/CNS) When Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected pope 40 Years ago on October 16,...
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published October 9, 2018 · Last modified October 8, 2018
The Southern Cross pilgrimage to Ireland in August was a journey of faith with moments of tourism — and sometimes the two happily coincided, as Günther Simmermacher found. The Southern Cross pilgrimage to Ireland...
Mary / Our Lady / Pilgrimage
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published October 2, 2018 · Last modified October 3, 2018
Unlike most other Marian apparitions, that in Knock was silent. Having visited Knock as part of the Southern Cross pilgrimage to Ireland in August, GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHERreflects on the shrine. There have been reported...
After going on pilgrimage in Ireland last month, Southern Cross editor GÜNTHER SIMMERMACHER found a diminished but still present Church. The scene: a pub in Dublin’s Nassau Street, near Holy Trinity College and Grafton...
by Gunther Simmermacher · Published September 11, 2018 · Last modified September 10, 2018
The last place you’d expect to find a practising Catholic to ply his trade is in a satanic rock group called Deicide. But so it was with Ralph Santolla, a guitarist who died in June at the age of 51.
