{"id":19968,"date":"2026-01-13T03:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19968\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T03:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T03:41:07","slug":"newly-appointed-archbishop-of-south-africas-cape-town-archdiocese-hopes-to-build-on-experience-in-former-diocese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19968\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly Appointed Archbishop of South Africa\u2019s Cape Town Archdiocese Hopes to Build on Experience in Former Diocese"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe called me and told me that Pope Leo was asking me to be the Archbishop of Cape Town,\u201d Bishop Sipuka said, and added, \u201cThese things are not expected, you don\u2019t have a hint, you don\u2019t apply for them. It always comes as a shock. After a short moment of thinking and praying, I said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He highlighted the importance of the Bishop\u2019s role in the life of a diocese, noting that his appointment to the Archdiocese means a lot to the people of God in the Metropolitan See than to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Bishop is very important in the life of the Church because he facilitates the life of the Church, the worship, the pastoral work, the ordination of priests, and the assignment of Priests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He emphasized that when there is no Bishop, as had been for the people of Cape Town, \u201cthere is usually a gap that is felt by the people whose diocese is vacant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transfer of Bishop Sipuka, who has been serving as the Local Ordinary of the South African Diocese since his Episcopal Ordination in May 2008, to the Cape Town Archdiocese was published<\/a> by the Holy See Press Office on Friday, January 9.<\/p>\n

Born on 27 April 1960, in Idutywa in South Africa\u2019s Eastern Cape Province, the Archbishop-elect was ordained a Priest for the Diocese of Queenstown<\/a> on 17 December 1988 after completing his Philosophical and theological studies.<\/p>\n

In the January 11 interview, Bishop Sipuka also spoke about the broader social challenges facing South Africa and the role of the Church in addressing them, saying, \u201cIn the whole country, the issue of unemployment is something that haunts, or should haunt, everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the Church\u2019s perspective, the Archbishop-elect said, \u201cour concern is the erosion of human dignity caused by unemployment, the inability to provide for oneself, for one\u2019s family, and to live a decent life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that from the point of view of the dignity of the human person, the Church is primarily concerned with the high rate of unemployment in the Southern African nation.<\/p>\n

As a way forward, he said, \u201cWe continue to support efforts to create more employment, and we are also encouraging people to be entrepreneurial, rather than only seeking employment, so that they can create jobs themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe called me and told me that Pope Leo was asking me to be the Archbishop of Cape…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[645,647,646,131],"class_list":{"0":"post-19968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-cna","10":"tag-keyword","11":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}