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Reports of the chapter of the Irish Capuchin mission in the Cape Province held in the Church of St. Mary of the Angels, Athlone parish. One of the volumes is a summary report on the chapter. The other report contains the following sections:
Report of the regular superior (Fr. Didacus McGrath OFM Cap.)
Reports on the following parishes and topics:
Parow Parish (Fr. Didacus McGrath OFM Cap.)
Tyger Valley (Fr. Aquinas O’Carroll OFM Cap.)
Elsies River (Br. Martin O’Sullivan OFM Cap.)
Athlone Parish (Fr. Athanasius Winston OFM Cap.)
Welcome Estate (Fr. Wilfrid Aherne OFM Cap.)
Manenberg (Fr. Albeus McQuillan OFM Cap.)
Postulancy report (Fr. Seán Cahill OFM Cap.)
Langa (Fr. Matthew Gormley OFM Cap.)
Belgravia (Fr. Bartholomew Prendiville OFM Cap.)
Bridgetown (Fr. Ronald Grace OFM Cap.)

Reports on parishes administered by the Irish Capuchins in Cape Province, South Africa. The reports were submitted by the Irish Provincial Minster to the Capuchin General Curia. They contain information in respect of Langa, Athlone, the Welcome Estate, Belgravia, Bridgetown, and Parow. Information is given under the following headings:
• Year of foundation
• Personnel
• Apostolates attached to parish
• Non-Parochial Apostolates (missions, retreats, diocesan functions)
• Population (numbers of Catholics, numbers of prospective converts and numbers of marriages)
• Care of other institutions
• Other religious working in parishes

Statistical information compiled by the Regular Superior in respect of the Irish Capuchin mission in Cape Town, South Africa. These were seemingly official returns compiled for archival retention. Includes information in respect of personnel, and revenue derived from subsidies from the Capuchin General Curia, the Irish Province, and other sources. Information is also given for expenditure.

Letters from Bishop Bernard Cornelius O’Riley (1868-1956), Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope, Western District, and Fr. John Morris, editor of the Southern Cross, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Fr. Kevin Moynihan OFM Cap., Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers, and Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary, regarding the prospects for establishing Irish Capuchin missionary foundations in the Athlone, Parow and Langa parishes in the Cape Province, South Africa. Fr. John Morris wrote: ‘There are only about thirty priests in the whole vicariate. This number includes three Jesuits, two Redemptorists, and some six Salesians. … Alas, there are no Franciscans in South Africa. You will therefore be real pioneers’ (16 May 1927). The Bishop wrote: ‘There are pagans and heathens in abundance in my Vicariate which covers some 17,000 sq. miles and I can assure there is endless scope in the Vicariate for the missionary efforts of your good Fathers’ (30 Mar. 1928). Later, he affirmed that the ‘poor people of “Athlone” (which is the name of the place of your first mission in South Africa) are nearly all coloured, a good simple lot, who have been working hard for some months past in their spare time to build with their own hands school-rooms’ (6 Dec. 1928). Reference is also made to the provision of a school for coloured children at Claremont (16 Feb. 1931) and to the financial state of the Vicariate (20 July 1932). The file includes a memorandum and agreement for sale from Bishop O’Riley to the Irish Capuchins of sites at Claremont, at Athlone, and at Parow (1 Nov. 1931), and a letter from Fr. John Morris requesting the Irish Capuchins supply a priest for the Philippi mission in the Vicariate (17 Mar. 1950).

Copy correspondence of Fr. Melchor a Benisa OFM Cap., Fr. Clement Neubauer OFM Cap., and Fr. Paschal Rywalski OFM Cap., General Ministers, to Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Fr. Conrad O’Donovan OFM Cap., and Fr. Berard Creed OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers, re the status of the Irish Capuchin missions in Africa. Reference is made to the request made by Bishop John Colburn Garner, Vicar Apostolic of Pretoria, seeking more priests to work in South Africa (see CA AMI/1/6/7). Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. wrote: ‘We felt that this arrangement with Bishop Garner will lead to an expansion of our work in South Africa’ (21 Dec. 1948). The possibility of separating the mission in Cape Town from that in Rhodesia is also discussed (31 Oct. 1950). Fr. Clement Neubauer OFM Cap. later referred to the establishment of Cape Town as a ‘separate mission’ and to the appointment of a Regular Superior (25 Nov. 1968). See also CA AMI/2/5/7.

Letters from Bishop Francis Henneman SAC (1882-1951), Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope, Western District, later Vicar Apostolic of Cape Town, to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers. The letters refer to requests for the Irish Capuchins to take over missionary outstations including those at Matroosfontein and in the Welcome Estate.

Letters from the Most Rev. John Colburn Garner (1907-1993), Archbishop of Pretoria, to Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers, offering missionary work to the Irish Capuchins in the Archdiocese. The Archbishop offers the district of Rustenburg (5 Nov. 1948); Zeerust, near the boundary with Bechuanaland. He encloses a copy of an agreement between the Archdiocese and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptortists) re work in the township of Rustenburg (5 Apr. 1953); the district of Groblersdal (1 Aug. 1955).

Letters from Bishop Hugh Boyle (1897-1986), Vicar Apostolic of Port Elizabeth, to Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. and Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers, requesting that more priests be sent to South Africa to work on local missions in the Vicariate of Port Elizabeth. The file includes correspondence with the Most Rev. Martin Lucas SVD, Apostolic Delegate to South Africa, referring to the urgent need for more missionaries in the district of Peddie, Cape Province.

Letters from the Most Rev. Owen McCann (1907-1994), Archbishop of Cape Town, to Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Fr. Conrad O’Donovan OFM Cap., Fr. Berard Creed OFM Cap. (1923-2004) , Fr. Eustace McSweeney OFM Cap., Provincial Ministers, and Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. (1902-1983) reporting on the missionary efforts of the Irish Capuchins in Parow (Parish of the Immaculate Conception); Matroosfontein (Parish of the Holy Trinity); Athlone (St. Mary of the Angels); Welcome Estate (St. Theresa’s); Langa (St. Anthony’s). The Archbishop also requests that an Irish Capuchin priest (Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap.) be sent to St. Helena and Ascension Island – part of the Cape Town Archdiocese. He writes: ‘There are 5,000 persons on [St. Helena] Island but only 3 to 4 Catholics at present … the prospect of conversions is uncertain. The Anglicans are well established. The schools are under the Government, as also the hospital’. Reference is also made to an application of Ronald Hinrichsen, a convert from the Dutch Reformed Church, to join the Capuchin Franciscan Order (24 Sept. 1952); to the death of Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. and the resulting vacancy in Parow parish (16 Aug. 1957); to a draft agreement with the Capuchins re Belgravia parish which has been separated from Parow (1 July 1961); to the need for new priests to meet the growing population in the Cape Flats district (20 June 1966); to Archbishop McCann’s desire to see Fr. Carthage Ruth OFM Cap. return to South Africa (4 Nov. 1968). Later, Archbishop McCann expresses his condolences on hearing of the death of Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap. (22 Mar. 1984).