Former South African YCW chaplain, Fr Joe Falkiner op, will be our speaker for our next ACI Webinar entitled “A Priest for Workers” on Tuesday 12 July 2022 at 7pm AEST.
Last year, Fr Joe published his memoirs in a book of the same name in which he recalled his many years of work as chaplain of the South African YCW movement under the apartheid regime during the 1970s and 180s.
SPEAKER
South African Dominican priest, Fr Joe Falkiner op, was born in the town of Springs in 1934. After completing high school with the Christian Brothers, he studied geology at university.
After this, he began work with the Anglo-American Corporation mining conglomerate, which sent him to Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Through this work, he saw the terrible way in which black workers were treated by their employer, eventually leading to his resignation and search for his vocation.
In 1962, he applied to enter the Dominican Order, joining their community at Stellenbosch in 1963, leading to his ordination in 1969.
Soon after joining the Dominicans, he came into contact with local teams of the South African YCW. As a priest in a parish from 1970, he began a greater involvement with the movement, setting him on the path to eventually becoming national chaplain.
Fr Joe’s memoirs tell the story of this sometimes dangerous work, under the surveillance of the security police, at the height of the apartheid regime.
READ MORE
Gunther Simmermacher, Book review: A priest looks back (Australian Cardijn Institute)
BUY THE BOOK
A Priest for Workers: Memoirs of Father Joseph Falkiner OP (Cluster Publications)
WEBINAR DETAILS
Title: A Priest for Workers: Fr Joe Falkiner op on working with the YCW in South Africa under apartheid
Date: Tuesday 12 July 2022, 7pm AEST/11am South African time
REGISTER
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpdeGtpz8jHdAr1XEZRtwQcBtAX55ixaYb
