The history of the parishes in the Diocese of Eshowe
The Cassino Mission owes its existence to Fr. Theodos Schall who urged Bishop Spreiter to buy land near Nqutu. It was on March 21, 1924, the Feast of Saint Benedict, that Fr. Theodos travelled to Nqutu to celebrate Mass in the house of a storekeeper, Mr. Schäfer. Afterwards, while he was walking around the village, he noticed a piece of land which struck him as being an ideal place for a mission station. The chronicle tells the story: "The land was fenced in which indicated that it was private property...It was situated just outside the European village. On two sides it was surrounded by the Native Reserve and on the other two sides by village commonage and the main road. It literally cried out to have a mission station erected on it" (chronicle of Cassino, 1932, pg. 42-43). Fr. Theodos found out that the property belonged to a Mr. Flindt, a former colonel in the British army, who knew the German Benedictines from his time in East Africa. He was willing to sell and Spreiter bought the 160-acre (65 hectare) piece of land in August 1924 for £ 400. Title deeds were issued to the Benedictines on June 11, 1925.
Lack of personnel and lack of money prevented Bishop Spreiter from starting a mission at Nqutu immediately. All he was able to do was build just a simple house on the property. This was completed in November 1927. Priests who made their pastoral tour from Inkamana to Nqutu used to stay overnight there and celebrate Mass for the people in one of the rooms which served as a chapel. It was also used as a class-room after a school had been opened in February 1928. However, the house was not big enough to accommodate the growing Sunday congregation and the increasing number of children who attended school. It was necessary to build a proper school-chapel. Workers were hired to erect the building with clay-bricks and natural stones, according to a plan made by Bro. Candidus Mayer. They were assisted by local Christians who were willing to help without being paid. The building was completed in June 1928 at a total cost of £ 250. Of this amount £ 60 were paid to the builder for his services. The rest was spent on buying bricks and other building materials. "It shows how terribly expensive it is to build in this country," comments the chronicler (cf. chronicle of Cassino, 1932, pg. 45). It took another four years before Bishop Spreiter was able to send a founding team to Nqutu.
The Cassino Mission was opened on April 27, 1932, and dedicated to the memory of Saint Benedict. The Catholics of Nqutu, who had been looked after by Oblate Missionaries from the Maria Ratschitz Mission near Dundee, fifty kilometres west of Nqutu, until 1924 and later by priests of Inkamana, had at last a proper mission station in their area. Among the Catholics were not only Zulus but also Sothos whose ancestors had settled in the Nqutu district at the end of the 19th century. Protestant churches had taken root in the district long before the arrival of Catholic missionaries. The Anglican church in particular was strongly represented.
Apart from the school-chapel and a small house, there were no solid buildings on the place when the Benedictines opened the Cassino Mission. It allowed them to erect the new buildings according to a carefully drafted plan which took into consideration possible future development. The first major project was a doublestorey house for the priests and brothers. It was completed in 1934. The church came next. It was completed in 1935 and served the community for over thirty years. When it became too small, it was replaced by a new and architecturally impressive building, designed by an architect from Pretoria, Mark Hussey. Bishop Aurelian Bilgeri blessed this church on April 6, 1962.
The mission school played an important rôle in the pastoral concept of the Benedictines of Cassino. It enabled the missionaries to instruct the children in the faith and to prepare them thoroughly for the reception of the sacraments. The school also contributed a great deal towards creating a positive image of the Catholic Church among the people. They appreciated the service rendered to their children by the Benedictines. This in turn disposed them favourably towards the Church. In order to accommodate children from farther away, the Benedictines opened a boarding house at the mission in January 1933. Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing came to Cassino in July 1934 and took over the school. They extended it step by step until it became a fully operational Std. 6 school. It catered for black children. As there were also a few white families living at Nqutu, the sisters were urged to run a school for their children as well. They agreed and began teaching white children at Nqutu in 1936. The so-called white school kept going for four years, but was discontinued in 1940. The Tutzing Sisters left Cassino in January 1951 and were replaced by Twasana Sisters.
The 160-acre (65 hectares) farm was for a long time the economic backbone of the Cassino Mission. The brothers were fairly successful in their efforts to plant maize and to keep a herd of cattle. They also grew sweet potatoes. Part of the farm was used for a black wattle plantation. All these activities secured a steady income, although there were occasional set-backs, caused mainly by drought or hail. The future of the Cassino Mission Farm was threatened when, in the early sixties, the government began buying white-owned land in order to consolidate the territories reserved for the Zulus. The bishop of Eshowe was eventually forced to sell most of the farmland of Cassino to the government. The mission was left with no more than a small-holding which has since then been used to plant vegetables and to keep a few animals. Bro. Nicolaus Zagermann has been looking after the farm for over forty years, since 1953.
The Kwazulu consolidation programme of the government has brought many changes to the Nqutu district since 1965. Thousands of black families, who had formerly lived and worked on white-owned farms, moved into the district after the government had declared them to be "surplus people", denying them the right to stay on white farms. A number of hastily arranged settlements sprang up in the Nqutu district where these homeless people tried to find shelter. These settlements often lacked even the most basic facilities such as a water supply, sewerage, schools and shops. Worse still was the fact that there were practically no job opportunities in these villages, which quickly developed into shanty towns such as Nondweni, Esiduleni, Emvunyane and Mondlo. The latter became by far the largest in the Nqutu district. It had a population of well over 50 000 in 1990. The general poverty of the people and the social problems in these townships made, and still make, great demands on the resources of the Cassino Mission.
In the wake of this development, the Diocese of Eshowe had to build several new churches to create centres for the congregations in the newly established towns and settlements. All but two of these churches are simple, western-style buildings. The two which are notably different are made of big, raw stones and have thatched roofs. They were built at Ngwebeni and Hlazakazi and blend in beautifully with the surrounding kraals of the Zulus and Sothos. The Cassino parish had fifteen outstations in 1990 and a total of 3600 Catholics. One of the red letter dates in the history of the parish was July 12, 1965, when a parishioner of Cassino, Gerard Khena (1940-1972), was ordained priest.
Parish Priests of Cassino
Assistant Priests at Cassino
Benedictine Brothers at Cassino
This page was last updated on 17.05.01 23:37:42
