The Bishop from Bethlehem

The Holy Father has named as Bishop of Eshowe, South Africa, Father Xolelo Thaddaeus Kumalo, Financial Administrator of the Diocese of Bethlehem, South Africa.

Bishop-elect Kumalo was born in 1954 in Gogela, South Africa. He finished high school at St. Paul’s Minor Seminary in Hammanskraal. In 1976 he became a Franciscan postulant and in 1979 entered the Novitiate. After a year of philosophy studies at the Franciscan Study Centre in Wingate Park, he left the order of his own accord and was sent by the Bishop of Witbank to St. John Vianney National Seminary (affiliated with the Pontifical Urbaniana University) to continue his studies. He was ordained a Deacon for the Diocese of Witbank in 1985.

After some years working as a clerk in a steel factory, the Bishop of Bethlehem accepted him into his Diocese. As a Deacon he was sent to study at Boston College in the United States. Upon his return home, he was ordained a priest in 1991 and incardinatedi n the Diocese of Bethlehem.

After ordination, he served as a Parochial vicar from 1991 to 1993 and then as a Pastor until 1996, after which he served as Episcopal Vicar for Catechists from 1995 to 1995, Pastor and head of the John Paul II Formation Centre from 1996 to1999, Vicar General from 2000 to 2006 and Financial Administrator of the Diocese of Bethlehem since 2007.