How Belgium’s Catholic king led nation through WWI and its darkest days
By Andrew Fowler, CNS – In 1914, in the early months of World War I, Belgium suffered immense turmoil and devastation due to a massive German invasion. Tens...
History
Southern Cross Editor: The Day My Knees Shook
Dear Reader, This month marks 25 years since abortion became legal in South Africa. Our readers, of course, need not be reminded of the Catholic Church’s teachings...
Was William Shakespeare a Catholic?
Question: A friend claims that William Shakespeare was a Catholic? I had not heard that before. Is it true? Answer: We cannot prove that Shakespeare was a...
The Peace I Found at Ngome
On a brightly-lit Tuesday morning, a cautiously optimistic city dweller left the potholed roads that wind through urban life for the meadows of rural KwaZulu-Natal. There, upon...
From Our Vaults 44 Years Ago: July 24, 1977
Priest on political trial Fr Dominic Scholten OP, secretary-general of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of having owned and/or...
Historical statues: Who’ll be the fall guys?
Your faithful columnist popped over from Durban to Cape Town in April and shared a round of coffee with your (and my) editor, Günther Simmermacher, and...
The SA Bishops in 1976
The January edition of The Southern Cross features an article on the 70th anniversary of Pope Pius XII establishing the Catholic Hierarchy of Southern Africa. It is...
Why We Need to Revisit the Past
Holidays are a great time to chill, relax and have a chance to allow your mind to wonder. I am not a New Year’s resolution type of...
Author: Why I Reopened Old Wounds
A memoir by a Catholic author about growing up under apartheid has been a surprise bestseller in South Africa this year. Günther Simmermacher interviewed Beryl Crosher-Segers. What...
A Jesuit at the Cape in the 1680s
Jesuit Father Guy Tachard, an astronomer and something of a secret agent, visited the Cape of Good Hope in 1685 and again two years later. While he...
