F R A N S A L I A N S

The beginning of the Catholic Church in Steenberg

 

The people of Steenberg and Vrygrond (now lavender Hill) used to walk over the sand dunes to St Mary’s, Retreat, to attend to their spiritual needs. Around 1960 the City of Cape Town allowed them, the parishioners of Steenberg, to use the Cradock Road Community Centre for masses conducted by the Redemptorists of St Mary’s with the assistance of the Holy Cross Sisters.

 

Masses were served by Fr Williams, a redemptorist priest who served under Fr Brooks at St. Mary's Retreat. After Fr Brooks and Fr Williams left Retreat, Fr Christian Granzier became parish priest and Fr Roland Andersen, his assistant was later sent to minister to the catholic folk of Steenberg. Sr Francis of the Holy Cross Convent Retreat served as the parish sister. 

 

Also, at that time the Notre Dame Sisters (Schoenstatt) who had a convent at Sweet Valley in Tokai started a Preparatory school in Elgar Street called Blessed Julies, named after the founder of the Notre Dame sisters. Founder of the school was Sr Monica who also served as the parish sister for many years and was responsible for the formation of catechetics in our parish. She was later joined by Sr Anthony who also taught at Blessed Julies and who later became our parish sister.

 

To mark the celebration of his 25th year of ordination as a priest, Cardinal Owen McCan established a jubilee fund for the building of churches. St Anne’s was the second church built from that fund. He laid the cornerstone on 11 June 1961 and officially opened it on 16 December 1961. St Anne’s was consecrated in 1986. The church was dedicated to St. Anne, the Mother of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus.

 

The first priest to serve there was Fr Jack Dempsey. He was later succeeded by Fr Dominic Campbell, Fr Andersen, Fr Christians, and Fr Arthur Curry – all from the Redemptorist community. When the redemptorist handed over the parish to the Archdiocese of Cape Town, Fr Gerard Masters was the first diocesan parish priest followed by Fr Stan Botha, Fr Gabriel Goibayer, and Fr Laurie van Schoor, Fr Smith, and Fr Mark Foster (this being his first parish after his ordination). Thereafter, priests from the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales started serving at St Anne's starting with Fr Babychan in 2007, followed by Fr Thomas Vanderkunnel, Fr Paul Dotamaio and Fr Philip Mangatt (still there today).

 

The church has striking and unusual artwork both outside and inside the church. The outside was done by Wren Sargent, using a new method to South Africa, by embedding vivid colour into the plaster of the murals. Inside, the paintings of the seven sacraments, around the altar, was done by Katerina de Blique.

 

One also remembers the generosity of Sr Monica's family who used her inheritance (a vast sum of money then) for the building of the present Emmanuel Parish Centre that consisted of a hall for church events, some classrooms for catechism, and a residence for the caretaker. Sr Elizabeth Cerfontyne, also of Notre Dame order later succeeded Sr Monica and did Trojan work in the field of Catechetics. We have never had a nun since then.

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We truly appreciate the parents, grandparents, and friends, that founded St Annes, like the Abrahams's, whose one daughter later became the late Sr Bernadette of the Holy Cross order, the Dicks, the Jacksons, the Jacobs, the Richardsons, the Solomons, the Novembers, and Ouma Ring who we will never forget for the delicious rock cakes and jam at the cake sales and fetes. Many of them have now gone to their rest, no doubt, welcomed lovingly into the presence of the Lord by our patron saint, St. Anne. The church is truly blessed to have parishioners, who even in the face of many hardships, remain firm in their faith and strive to make the church vibrant as a single community as it is today so that we can pass on the treasure of our faith to our children and their children for generations to come.

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Our first organist was Rosemary Muller (nee Rosy Assam), who served from the age of 13 for 20 years, until she moved to her next parish in Strandfontein. She organised the children's masses and did music instrument training. We’ve had several generations of parishioners in the choir and music ministry since then.

 

We celebrated our golden jubilee with the then parish priest, Fr Thomas Vanderkunnel, who formed a Jubilee Committee jointly led by himself and Stephen Engelbrecht, the then PPC chairperson. We had many spirit-building community events, including a mini-mission lead by Fr Devasia (MSFS), as well as fundraising events, culminating in a parish lunch after the Jubilee mass on the feast day of St Anne in July 2011, conducted by the Archbishop of Cape Town, Stephen Brislin and our own parish priest. The Jubilee logo, designed and constructed by our own parishioners, is now a mural on the church wall.

 

In 2009 we started cooperating with the catholic refugees from Congo, Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. They all settled in Capricorn Park and walked to St Anne’s in Steenberg. They still participate in our ministries (PPC, music and catechetics) as well as support our parish fundraisers. In 2013 they constructed a temporary church building on a rented piece of land in Capricorn Park with the opening celebration mass conducted by Fr Philip and where he now conducts a celebration of the Eucharist every third Sunday of the month. In April 2024, they had a baptismal mass at St Annes where 64 children (newborn to teenager) received the sacrament of baptism.

 

Much water has passed under the bridge since then. All ministries are functioning well with Sodalities like the SVP volunteering their time looking after the poor and a men’s group that encourages the role of men in society and as father in families as well as assist with supplying labour for parish events. Never has a single year passed that we missed a first communion, confirmation or baptism. We also have a thriving junior and senior youth guided by volunteers from the community.