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About Our Parish

About Our Parish

The Parish Legend
The Church of the Good Shepherd in Bothasig was officially opened on 30 September 1973 by His Eminence Owen, Cardinal McCann.

The original idea conceived by the then Parish Priest, Michael Ward, was to name all Churches and Chapels in the Parish after the five Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.   This can be seen in the first Church and Chapel in Brooklyn : Our Lady of the Assumption and The Ascension.

When the Church in Bothasig was built however, there was a very good relationship between The Good Shepherd Convent in Killarney and Father Ward.   At that time, 1972, the Sisters of The Good Shepherd were in the process of moving to their house in Durban.  Many items used in their Chapel were offered to us for the new Church in Bothasig.  For that gesture as well as their untiring work in the Parish, the suggestion was put forward by one of the Council members, Dougie Farrell, to name the Church after their Order.  This proposal was unanimously agreed to.

In 1966, when the new Bothasig area was being developed, it was originally known as Bosmansdam, later to be renamed after Mr P W Botha.  Four Church sites were allocated at that time and unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you look at it, the Catholic Church did not at that stage "put in their claim". 

When in 1967 Father Ward decided to have a Mass Centre in Bothasig, allocated Church sites were no longer available and as a result, on Easter Sunday morning, Mass was celebrated in the lounge of the Obermeyers house at 31 Tafelberg Road.  The attendance was then 20 people, but in time numbers increased and the carport at the same address was enclosed and used as a Chapel. 

Although two Masses were being celebrated on Sunday mornings, the carport was bursting at the seams.  The Chapel was too small and there was nowhere to go.  Fortunately for us, the Methodist / Presbyterian / Anglican Community had erected a prefab Church Hall on one of the original Church Sites in Teyger Street and through the kind intervention of Mr Evan Swart they very kindly allowed us the use of it for Sunday Masses.   Mass was celebrated there each Sunday.

The one faithful adult altar server, Jumbo Voskule, assisted at these Masses alone until February 1973 when he was joined by a few others.

From the middle of 1968 through to early 1969 Jan van Belkum was appointed Curate to Father Ward and immediately Bothasig became his "territory".  He was instrumental in forming the first Ladies Guild.   These ladies met every Monday evening for Benediction and a meeting.  The Guild flourished for about two years.

The very first Bothasig Catholic Bazaar was organised by this group of ladies.  It was held in the Martin Adams Hall in Brooklyn and the grand amount of R1700.00 was realised.  Quite an achievement for 1969.

In line with his Parish Council in Brooklyn, Father Ward got the men together to form, what was then known as the Bothasig Regional Council.  Some of the Committee members were :  Chairperson Jimmy Mason, Treasurer Reg Fiorentinos, Secretary Mary Clifton, Members Arthur Kieswetter, Roger Serra, Ken Cerfontein and John Hibbert.  Later, Len Galante, Brian Nugent, Derek Croucher and Keith Thomas joined the Council.  In 1977 the new system of Family Planned Giving was formally introduced and finally we could now be assured of a regular parish income.

Early in 1972 a meeting took place between Father Ward and the then Minister of Community Development "Blaar" Coetzee.  This meeting was held at the wedding reception of Coetzee's daughter who married a Catholic of the Brooklyn parish.  As a result of this meeting we obtained a plot of ground in Bothasig as a Church site.  Not for nothing, however.  The princely sum of TWO RAND was paid for the plot.  Immediately plans were put into action for the building of the new Church and early in 1973 work commenced.

In September 1973, the Church was finally completed but boundary walls were conspicuous by their absence.  In order to try and save the Parish some money, an idea was put forward to erect the "vibracrete" wall ourselves.  A number of teams were formed and per night they laboured to mix concrete, fill the jigs (both uprights and panels) and leave the site for the next team to do their stint the following night.  This worked well for a few nights until torrential rains hit the Cape and after virtually wading around knee deep in water and cement, Father Ward said : "Thanks, but no thanks."  He was truly grateful for what the men had tried to do, but it was finally decided to rather spend the money and have the wall erected by professionals.  The few panels and uprights that were produced are still standing today.  We say thanks to all those who laboured on those wet and cold nights especially Kenny Cerfontein who designed and manufactured the jigs.

We also fondly remember a small group who set about entertaining the younger members of the Parish by means of film shows on Friday nights.  Those Tarzan movies really filled the hall.  Television did not exist at that time in South Africa and people like Reg and Becky Fiorentinos, Keith and Jane Thomas, Kenny and Veronica Cerfontein, Roger Serra, Joe and Joyce Petersen, Rusty and Gloria Hope and Brian and Ethne Nugent would transfer the hall into a regular Movie House on those Friday nights.  The revenue raised as a result of these shows paid for window blinds for the hall, chairs and wood used to manufacture the trestles and table tops which are still used in the hall today.

The legend is not complete without mentioning the late Iris Myburg who for many years worked and toiled in the office producing the weekly Parish Bulletin and performed many other tasks for the parish.  A very big vote of thanks to Paddy Hodge who in those early days worked with Iris and until a few years ago could still be found working in the office every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A replacement was found for Iris in the personage of Shirley Voskule, the wife of the late Jumbo Voskule. Shirley still works tirelessly for the parish.

A true record of the actual opening day would not be complete without the following incidents being noted.  Everyone had their own task to perform, and Ken Cerfontein was in charge of keeping the parking space in front of the Church open for the Cardinal.  Unfortunately he did not recognise the official car when it arrived and politely asked the driver to move as that was a reserved parking area.  Ken then proceeded to do the 100 metre sprint down Goede Hoop Street to bring the car back.  On that day the Cape Doctor was at its best and as the Cardinal walked around sprinkling Holy Water, he and his entourage received it all.  None of the water actually landed on the building.

Priests of the Parish
Although Father Ward was our first Parish Priest, he was also very much involved with the needs of the other parishioners of Brooklyn, Rugby, Milnerton and Table View.   His house was part of the Church complex in Brooklyn.  Now that a Church, seating 300, had been built in Bothasig, with a hall as big as the Church and a fair size house, Father Bernard Costello was appointed to watch over the growing number of parishioners of The Good Shepherd.  He was with us until October 1974 when he sadly passed away.

For the next two months Father Ward and O'Gorman (who had been helping at Brooklyn Parish for some time) alternated in saying Mass at Bothasig. In January 1975, the charismatic Ronnie Fletcher arrived as the replacement priest.  He was one of the founders of the Catholic Charismatic movement in Cape Town.   It was during his time that Bothasig was officially made a separate Parish.  The areas it covered were Bothasig (Edgemead was originally part of Goodwood Parish) and the small bush area of Richwood.  Father Fletcher instilled the love of the Holy Spirit among the people and it was a sad day when he was transferred to greener pastures in March 1977.

Dick O'Rouke was later appointed as our new Parish Priest and in the twelve months of his tenure, the Parish underwent, of all things, a change of name.  We became St Thomas and the area of Welgelegen was joined to us.  The reason for the change came about as a result of a plot of ground in the new area where it had been proposed to build a new church  (already named as St Thomas' Parish).  This changed again when he was transferred and Gerhard Kues took up residence.  The Good Shepherd name was retained and has been ever so since.

After a further twelve months Father Kues was replaced by the humble, caring Eddie Mansfield.  An actor in his young days he brought about a remarkable change to the Parish.  Lay people were encouraged to become more involved and through his insistence three members of the Parish underwent training and in 1979 were inducted as the first Ministers of the Eucharist.  These were Des King, Peter James-Smith and Keith Thomas.
Peter has since moved to another area and Des is sadly no longer with us.   Fr. Eddie had unfortunately been diagnosed with cancer and he was with us for a short three years.  After a long time of suffering, he went to his rest in September 1982.  His presence is still felt in the Parish today.

During the following four months there was no resident Priest.  On weekdays the Ministers of the Eucharist would conduct Eucharistic Services for the parishioners and even on Sundays at times when a Priest was not available to celebrate Mass.   We would like to thank the Salesian Priest, especially Father Pat Naughton who took on the responsibility of carrying out the necessary Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals during those four months.  Also a big thanks to the laity of the time especially the Parish Council who helped to keep the wheels turning.

February 1983 saw the appointment of Rodney Hall as Parish Priest.   Apart from his normal priestly functions, he took a great interest in the various committees and councils that are required within a Parish.  The Finance Council, which up to then had not existed as a formal committee, was introduced and the late Neil Tomlinson was appointed as chairman for the first Finance Council.   Obviously Father Hall made a good choice as Neil diligently looked after the Parish finances for many years.

Three years later Harrie Hovers arrived at the Good Shepherd and during his stay we saw the first of a series of building alterations.  The Priest's house was extended, Cathecetical rooms were added to the side of the Church building and the Parish was plunged into enormous debt.   Father Hovers and the Finance Council were not perturbed.  A fresh Family Planned Giving Scheme was introduced and as a result of the untiring work and effort by both the Finance and Pastoral Councils and even more so by the Parishioners themselves, the debt was paid off.  Not during Father Hovers' time however, but during the caring and loving guidance of Bernard Brown.

Father Brown was transferred from Durbanville in July 1990 and spent the longest period at that time as Parish Priest.  From July 1990 until the end of January 1997.   Again we found a priest of vision and endurance.  During his `management' we managed to pay off our entire debt and shortly thereafter Archbishop Lawrence Henry consecrated the Church on 21 April 1991.  As with all our previous Parish Priests, the members of our congregation underwent a further change.   In fact, not only change but a spiritual growth.  The word `LOVE' was introduced to the Parish and this love was transferred from the top to all corners of the areas of Bothasig, Edgemead, Richwood, Monte Vista and Plattekloof Glen.  Once more the parishioners rallied forth to the suggestion of change and in response to a call from the various  Councils under Father Bernard's leadership, our family said `yes' to a further series of building alterations - the addition of a kitchen to the hall, office and flower room.   Here the debt incurred was settled within a record breaking eighteen months.

A further addition to the Parish in 1997 was the arrival of our first deacon.  Dick Croucher and his wife relocated from Goodwood Parish and took up residence in Bothasig.

In January 1997 we said farewell to Father Bernard and a warm welcome was extended to Parish Priest Father David Anderson. Father David immediately showed his ability to gather around him the youth of the Parish.   He firmly believes - and without exception the parishioners agree - that today's children are tomorrow's church.   He has so often said that we must nurture the youth.   Soon after the arrival of Father David, a plan that had been previously considered was put into action and three of our young people attended the 12th World Youth Day in France.  The lucky three were Bronwyn Capes, Beverley Deacon and Sergio Sagrestano.  The high points of that trip was, first attending a Papal Mass with an estimated 1.3 million people from all over the world, secondly a visit to the monks of Taize and finally a memorable journey to Lourdes.

From 1998 to present
The Parish has grown tremendously since 1998 both in numbers and in spiritual growth. In 1998 Father David led a pilgrimage to Lourdes and Israel. In May 2000 one of the classrooms was converted into a Chapel and 24-hour Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration was launched.    In May 2001 while Father David led a pilgrimage to Medjugorje and Rome and while they were in Medjugorje, the parish held a Rosary Vigil in the Chapel to celebrate one year's successful Perpetual Adoration.
Also, further building alterations were done to accommodate the various parish group meetings and catechism classes and a new Conference Centre was built in the gardens of the Parish house.

In January 2009, Father David left the parish to become Parish Priest of Tableview Parish and Rev. Fr. John Keough became our new Parish Priest.