AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - Bishop of Bethlehem resigns, successor appointed

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, on 31 December 2008, accepted the renunciation of the pastoral government of the diocese of Bethlehem (South Africa), presented by Bishop Hubert Bucher, in conformity with the Code of Canon Law, canon 401 § 1. On the same day the Holy Father appointed as Bishop of Bethlehem (Sudafrica), Rev. P. Jan de Groef, M.Afr., a member of the formative staff of the White Fathers in Cedara, in the archdiocese of Durban.
The new Bishop was born on 7 January 1948, at Beigem (Grimbergen) in Belgium, archdiocese of Brussels-Malines. After school in Laken (Brussels), he entered the Novitiate of the Missionaries of Africa, (White Fathers) on 22 September 1973, at Birkdale (England). After making his first profession he was sent to St. Edward’s College in London to continue his ecclesiastical formation. He studied at the London Missionary Institute until 1976. From 1976 to 1978 he was sent to Tanzania for pastoral experience, then returned to London to complete his studies. He made his perpetual profession on 19 January 1979 and was ordained a priest on 7 July 1979, at Beigem (Belgium). Since then he has ministered as follows: 1980-1982: assistant parish priest at Senekal, diocese of Bethlehem; 1982-1986: superior of the local community of White Fathers at Phuthaditjhaba; 1986-1988: parish priest at Bohlokong and then at Bethlehem; 1989-1995: in charge of missionary animation of White Fathers in Louvain, in Belgium; 1995-1999: he returned to South Africa as was appointed parish priest at Siyabuswa archdiocese of Pretoria; 1999-2003: he took a Spirituality Course at Le Chatelard, Paris and was then asked to work in the Novitiate in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso; 2003-2006: he returned once again to South Africa to be parish priest at Siyabuswa, archdiocese of Pretoria, and sector Superior of the White Fathers; since 2008: he has been a member of the formation staff of his own Institute at Cedara in the archdiocese of Durban.
The diocese of Bethlehem, created in 1951, is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Bloemfontein. It has an area of 34,696 sq. km., and a population of 702,948 (74,000 are Catholics), 16 parishes, 26 priests (18 diocesan and 8 religioos), 6 seminarians and 67 women religious. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 8/1/2009; righe 26, parole 351)