75 Years Anniversary

SJV @ 75 1948 – 2023

In his foreword to Joy Bain’s history of St John Vianney Seminary, Bishop William Slattery noted that a seminary encapsulates the history of a local church. The story of St John Vianney Seminary NPC, therefore, reflects some of the struggles, weaknesses and successes of the Southern African Church. We trace this back to the formative years of Apartheid in 1948 when three separate seminaries existed in the country: Pavensey, Hammanskraal, and St John Vianney. Today, questions regarding the Church’s decision to give in to the Apartheid regime’s intrigues, a decision that ultimately enfeebled priestly formation and retarded the growth of the Church’s own conscientisation, are still not satisfactorily answered. St John Vianney Seminary, says Bishop Slattery, has travelled a tortuous road.

Before 1922 no priests were trained in South Africa, but with the publication of Pope Benedict XV’s Encyclical Letter Maximum Illud, Apostolic Delegates were tasked to set up seminaries for the training of indigenous clergy. Pope Pius XI also issued Ad Catholicum Sacerdotium to this effect. The task of establishing a seminary in South Africa in accordance with the two papal documents mentioned fell in the hands of Dominican Archbishop Bernard Jordan Gijlswijk, who was the Apostolic Delegate to South Africa from 1923-1944. After his visitation of the local vicariates and prefectures, Gijlswijk summoned all the local ordinaries and ecclesiastical superiors to Kimberley in 1924 where the issue of the training of local priests was discussed. However, the Marianhill Missionaries already had plans for the building of St Mary’s Seminary at Mariathal while the St Augustine’s seminary had been opened by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1924 in Lesotho.

Martin Lucas SVD began the formation of a consultative Body of bishops later to be known as the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference while fostering the idea of a national seminary.

Although Cape Town and Port Elizabeth were considered for the building of the seminary, it was Pretoria that won the day. Archbishop Lucas, the Apostolic Delegate, considered Pretoria to be ideal given the fact that the apostolic delegation had been transferred from Bloemfontein to Pretoria and because the site at Waterkloof was suitable. The current site was bought from the Sisters of Nazareth for 4000 British Pounds with Bishops Hurley and O’Leary contributing substantially. The seminary was to fall under the Church Interest Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference under Bishop Hurley.

The Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology (BST) was introduced in Fr Carroll’s first year of office. Prior to 1971 seminarians couldn’t wear lay dress, couldn’t visit one another’s room, and couldn’t go outside the seminary. These rules were changed in 1971. Students also addressed an open letter to the bishops asking for a multi-racial seminary since St John Vianney Seminary catered for white students only. However, it would take a few more years before the seminary would become multi-racial.

In May 1976 Bishop Stephen Naidoo informed staff and students that there would be only one seminary-St Peter’s at Hammanskraal-and that St John Vianney would have to close. However, with the student uprising in 1976, St John Vianney was spared. St Peter’s closed down during the second semester as a result of the student unrest and six of its senior students we admitted at St John Vianney for the remainder of the year. Unfortunately, these black students had to leave shortly afterwards for fear that their communities would label them as traitors. They addressed a letter to the bishops to this effect. Despite their short stint at St John Vianney, these black students had proved that the notion of a multi-racial seminary was possible.

During Fr Myles’s reign as rector, the seminary became racially mixed. In total they had nine coloured, one Indian, one Chinese, twenty-two white and two black students. In 1978 twenty-one black students were admitted to the seminary.

The post-synodical exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, published in 1992, deals with priestly formation. Accordingly, the seminary divided the formation of the priest into four stages: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. The seminary began issuing a Higher Diploma in Ministerial Skills to emphasise the pastoral dimension of seminary formation.

The Higher Diploma was awarded for the first time in 1999 and was later recognised by the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA). In 2008, Fr. Sithembele was to oversee the long-anticipated unification of both the St Peter’s Seminary, which had moved to Garsfontein and taught only philosophy with the St John Vianney Seminary, which taught theology. Henceforth, philosophy and theology students of all races were to reside in one seminary. Finally, the vision of Dominican archbishop Bernard Jordan Gijlswijk, who was Apostolic Delegate to South Africa from 1923-1944, was fully realised.

The primary mission of St John Vianney Seminary NPC is the formation of priests for the Roman Catholic Church. It entails providing an environment conducive for forming an academically developed, deeply human, psychologically balanced and spiritually mature person, with love for humanity and passion for pastoral service. It strives towards the development of individuals equipped with knowledge, habits and skills that enable them to fully assimilate personal, communal, intellectual and moral values necessary for personal growth and meaningful contribution to the Church as a whole, as well as to the society of South African and the whole world. In this way, the mission of St John Vianney Seminary (SJV) is wholistic in approach, ensuring a balanced training of the intellectual, human, spiritual and pastoral aspects of its students.

The intellectual training of SJV is specifically geared towards producing students who value depth of thought, clarity of vision, intellectual balance, thoughtful dialogue and critical evaluation.

Rectors of St John Vianney Seminary

  1. Fergus Barrett OFM, (1948-1966)
  2. Norbett Carroll OFM, (1967-1972)
  3. Bernard Frank Doyle OFM (1972-1976)
  4. Myles Russell OFM (1977-1984)
  5. William Slattery OFM, (1985-1991), later Archbishop of Pretoria
  6. Graham Rose, (1991-1997), alumnus and first non-Franciscan rector, Bishop of Dundee
  7. Mlungisi Pius Dlungwane, (1997- 2000) the first black rector.
  8. Mike Lewis SJ, (2000-2001) acting rector
  9. Sithembele Sipuka, (2000-2008), Alumnus, lecturer, now Bishop of Mthatha, President of the SACBC
  10. Enrico Parry (2008-2011), alumnus, professor dean, and vice-rector before being rector/president of the seminary, also served as acting rector of St. Peter’s seminary (2006-2007)
  11. Molewe Machingoane, (2011-2015)
  12. Paul Manci, (2015-2018)
  13. Masilo John Selemela, (2019- 2022) Auxillary Bishop of Pretoria
  14. Wellington Ncedo Siwundla, (2022- )