Province of South Africa
The first Priests of the Sacred Heart from the German Province arrived in South Africa on November 28, 1923. They established their first mission, St. Teresa, in the Herschel district, which was later to become part of the diocese of Aliwal North.
During World War II, the freedom, and therefore the work of the SCJs, was limited as a result of the internment of the German priests and brothers. A plea for assistance was met by the United States Province who sent the first SCJ missionaries from the United States in June of 1948 to begin work among the poor in what is now the De Aar diocese.
As time passed the mission work continued to progress, but was seriously hampered by the shortage of priests. In 1987 two Polish SCJs accepted an invitation from the superior of the SCJ Region in De Aar. In the same year the bishop of the Aliwal North diocese appealed to the Polish Province for more priests to assist in his diocese.
In the period 1990 - 1998, nine more priests from the Polish Province arrived in South Africa. On February 2, 1995, the priests and brothers from the German, American and Polish Provinces were united at the foundation of the South African Province.
The monastery house which was completed in 1991 became the "mother house" of the new province and recently the headquarters of the provincial was moved there. The novitiate was relocated to Bethulie in the Free State. The first SCJ House of Studies was established at Merrivale in Kwa Zula, Natal, in association with the Cedara Inter-Religious Institute.
At present one third of the members are mainly involved with administration and religious and priestly formation duties of the province. The remaining two thirds continue their pastoral work among the poor in the rural areas and its many scattered and often isolated outstations.
Seventy-five years after the arrival of the first scjs we continue our work with confidence in Him who said: "I am sending you..." and responding to Fr. Dehon's challenge to be prophets of love and servants of reconciliation.
