Diocese of South African Defence Force
Latin Church · South African Defence Force
The Military Ordinariate of the South African Defence Force is a Latin-rite military ordinariate, established as a military vicariate on 17 May 1951 and raised to ordinariate on 21 July 1986. It is immediately subject to the Holy See, headquartered in Pretoria, and has been held since 30 April 2019 by Archbishop Dabula Anthony Mpako of Pretoria as military ordinary.
The see
- Tradition
- Latin Church
- Erected
- 1951
The see in figures
- Priests
- 2
Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.
The bishop
- Bishop
- Dabula Anthony Mpako
A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.
The cathedral
St. Ignatius de Loyola Cathedral stands in South African Defence Force, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.
On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.
History
Catholics serving in the South African National Defence Force, together with their families, receive pastoral care from this military ordinariate of the Catholic Church, the Military Ordinariate of the South African (National) Defence Force (or of South Africa). It belongs to no ecclesiastical province, being exempt, that is, immediately subject to the Holy See.
How to reach it
- Chancery
- Jolivet House, 140 Visagie Street, P.O. Box 8149, 0001 Pretoria
This see keeps no website of its own, so its chancery is published here: withholding it would protect nothing and leave a reader with nowhere to go. Where a see publishes its own site, the register sends you there instead.
What is kept by invitation
The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.
The working record is not. The clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it, are kept for members, and a person reads every request.
Sources
This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].