Catholics in South Africa are being called to unite against the national broadcaster’s decision to drop live coverage of Pope Francis’s Christmas Mass.
An editorial in South Africa’s Catholic weekly, the Southern Cross, states the SABC has reneged on a 2010 promise to broadcast the Pope’s Christmas Mass live every year.
This can be seen as a contravention of the SABC’s religious broadcasting policy, which is to ensure a fair and equitable representation of the nation’s religious communities.
People who own a television set have to pay a license fee to fund the SABC, so it has an obligation to serve its communities, the editorial continued.
“To tolerate the SABC’s disrespectful treatment is to accept the creeping marginalisation of the Catholic Church in South Africa’s public life.”
“South Africa’s faithful should not accept it quietly”, whatever the reason behind the papal Mass decision, the editorial argued.
“Catholics must in large numbers register their protest with the SABC, in letters and on social media.”
The editorial hinted that the Church hierarchy in South Africa should lead a campaign against the SABC decision.
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