This Month in History

History is important. In centuries past this statement would have seemed self-evident. Ancient cultures devoted much time and effort to teaching their children family history. It was thought that the past helps a child understand who he is. Modern society, however, has turned its back on the past. We live in a time of rapid change, a time of progress. We prefer to define ourselves in terms of where we are going, not where we come from. Our ancestors hold no importance for us. They lived in times so different from our own that they are incapable of shedding light on our experience. Man is so much smarter now than he was even ten years ago that anything from the past is outdated and irrelevant to us. Therefore the past, even the relatively recent past, is, in the minds of most of us, enshrouded by mists and only very vaguely perceived. Our ignorance of the past is not the result of a lack of information, but of indifference. We do not believe that history matters. But history does matter. It has been said that he who controls the past controls the future. Our view of history shapes the way we view the present, and therefore it dictates what answers we offer for existing problems. – David Crabtree

The importance of history came to the fore in the archdiocese fairly recently.  It was only when the diocese then celebrated its silver jubilee in 2002 that efforts were made to uncover its past, to discover its origins, growth and development, its journey from an apostolic prefecture to a diocese.

Collecting the materials proved a mammoth task for the diocesan documentation team for the people  were not very conscious of the importance of history and the important events that happened in their lives, in their parishes, in the local Church as a whole.

The Jubilee celebration in 2002 has given the local Church the opportunity to know itself better since many new discoveries of the past were related and recorded.  Thankfully now the people are more conscious of the importance of history and providentially media technology has provided the tools for recording and archiving such knowledge with a click.

Historical events in the archdiocese are indexed by month.

January        February        March          April

May             June               July             August

September     October      November     December

Years of particular interest (no dates recorded)