Closing of the Year of the Priest: Celebration of the First African Priests

The closing Celebration of the Year for Priests will be held on Monday 9 August 2010 at Mariathal Mission at 9:30 am, Diocese of Mariannhill, with the attendance of all bishops and priests representatives from all dioceses. This will be also a special celebration in honour of the first four African Priests in South Africa. This celebration was planned to coincide with the Plenary session of the Southern African Bishops Conference which starts in Mariannhill on 3 August.

Although the Year of the priest was officially concluded in Rome on 16 June 2010, the Southern African Catholic Church wanted to link these two events together. "In this year of the priest, the diocese of Mariannhill wants to honour the first Zulu priests who were the fruits of the vision that Abbot Francis Pfanner, the founder of Mariannhill, had for the future of the local Church", says a statement published by the diocese. 

Two of the first African priests came from the area of the present Diocese of Umzimkulu: Fr. Andreas Ngidi from Centocow Mission and Fr. Julius uMkhomazi Mbhele from Lourdes Mission. They were sent to Rome in 1889 for studies and received doctorates in philosophy and theology before being ordained in 1907. Ngidi died in 1951 and was buried in Inkamana. Mbhele died in Pietermaritzburg in 1956 and was buried at Lourdes Mission.

Fr. Edward Kece Mnganga was ordained in Rome in 1898 after being sent by Abbot Francis for studies. he worked fruitfully in Zululand, but due to the jealousy of a fellow priest, he was sent to the mental hospital in Pietermaritzburg for 17 years. When he was released, he established a catechetical school at Mariathal Mission and promoted local vocations. He died a saintly death in 1945. 

In 1894 Abbot Amandus Scholzig, successor of Abbot Francis Pfanner, sent two candidates from Mariathal to Rome. One of them, Charles Mbengane, became very ill and died. The other, Alois Mantshonga Mncadi was ordained in 1903. As a priest he worked in the rural areas. He came into conflict with a missionary and later with the new bishop of Mariannhill. Subsequently Fr. Mncadi went to work in the new vicariate of Zululand, already a sick man and died at Mariathal Mission in 1933.

"These four Zulu priests deserve our deep respect and admiration, because against all odds they remained faithful to the Church which had made them suffer, and to their high calling", says the diocese's statement. 

On 9 August, a Solemn celebration of the Eucharist will be held at Mariathal Mission, including a brief address on the Catholic Priesthood, a renewal of promises by all priests and bishops.

(Press release from SACBC. Used with permission.)