Friars Preachers Southern Africa

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Our Provincial, Father Mark James, will attend our next General Chapter in Rome during the month of September. It is an Elective Chapter, that is to say, the Chapter during which a new Master of the Order will be elected.

Two of our students, Ndabaningi Brian Mhlanga and Clement Mweni, and two of the Angolan students, Marmiliano Naufila and Albano Troco, attended the Inter-Africa meeting of Dominican Students in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in July.  

This morning we heard that Fr.John has just passed away in Holland, aged 74. Having been ordained priest in 1964, he had come as a young priest to South Africa to work in the Diocese of Kroonstad, and only recently retired back to Holland. Fr. John was well known not only as a parish priest in the Sesotho speaking parishes, but also as someone devoted to the apostolate among Basotho children. Through his efforts, the youth movement CHIRO was established in almost every Sesotho parish in the diocese. He was also for many years part of the Bishop’s Council.

The Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies, based in Egypt, is organising a two-week workshop on Islam and inter-religious dialogue in Cairo for English-speaking Dominican students in July 2009. Our Southern African Vicariate will be represented by Brother Ndabaningi Mhlanga.

This Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies was set up by three Dominican friars at the beginning of the 1950’s when the Vatican called on Religious Orders to take Islam seriously. It has developed into a well-known research institute with a team of about twenty scholars dedicated to the sources of Arab and Muslim civilization. They have established a comprehensive library open to scholars on Muslim culture and heritage; they publish research papers; and they run workshops on Inter-Religious dialogue.

This particular workshop for Dominican students will include lectures on the basic topics of Islam, visits to significant places in Cairo, and personal contacts with Muslim friends, and it will be followed by a trip to the Holy Land.