Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Holy Trinity Catholic Church is a parish of the Archdiocese of Johannesburg and has been served by the Society of Jesus in Southern Africa since 1971. The parish is part of the central deanery of the archdiocese. The church is conveniently located on the southeastern corner of the main campus of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

Now in the 1800s Mass had to be attended either at Kerk Street or Fordsburg, Father De Lacy and Hamer did their best to visit the scattered parishioners. In 1897, because so many Hollanders and Poles worked on the Railways at Braamfontein, Trappist Monks from Mariannhill were invited to establish a mission to serve migrant mine workers in Stiemens Street, and the first church was hastily built and opened in 1899. Parishioners had given to a monthly collection just as at the present time, but collecting then, because of the lack of trams, entailed miles of hard and dusty walking.

Social life in the parish in those days was also well organised. On the corner now occupied by the Convent at Station and Stiemens street was the tennis court used by the Catholic Young Men’s Club. Functions were also regularly held, so that there was little or no expense, and the combined proceeds soon warranted the purchase of a small organ. The venue of the socials had been built by the men parishioners, who worked a few hours each evening on the hall which, so many years later, has served such a useful purpose as temporary church while the new one was being built. It was then reverted back to convent use.

1927 Father Ryan had the church enlarged by moving back the Sanctuary. 10 years before in 1917, because the parish had grown covering Melville, Parkview, Parktown, Rosebank and Wanderers View, and because the little church was often taxed beyond its capacity, Father Ryan had set aside donations amounting to 3 pounds with the remark “I am going to put this towards a fund for a new church”.

After Father O’Callaghan’s coming the Building Fund was maintained and increased, making it possible, with the co-operation of His Lordship Bishop O’Leary, and with much wise consideration of the site and plans, to start on the building of the new church. Parishioners felt, however, that the building of church and presbytery should also coincide in this instance, and, after they had organised a very successful bazaar, permission was given to proceed with the house. For several months only half of the old presbytery was standing, and finally, when the builders threatened to take the roof from over his head, Father O’Callaghan was compelled to go on holiday, and then to accept the hospitality of Father McCarthy at Mayfair until the new presbytery was completed.

Soon after, the Anglo-Boer war broke out, and the monks returned to Natal. At which time, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate were called upon to serve the new parish. The current church with a more solid structure was completed and opened in 1938. Initially it was one of the largest buildings in Braamfontein – and prominently visible throughout the area – but as Johannesburg developed and the neighbouring Wits University grew, the church lost some of its visual prominence, as it became part of the surrounding cityscape.

Bishop O’Leary honoured the parish by celebrating the last Holy Mass in the old church on April 18, 1937, and exactly three months later he laid the foundation stone for the new one, and on 11 September 1938 he performed the opening ceremony for the new church building.

The Paulist Fathers succeeded the oblates in 1966 and served the parish and university chaplaincy. The parish was handed back into diocesan hands in 1969, but this period was short-lived. In 1973, the Society of Jesus took responsibility for the parish, which it retains today. The Jesuits oversaw the building of Trinity House, a new residence for Catholic students studying at universities in the area. The residence was opened in 1991. The Jesuits have since served as chaplains to university students of this part of Johannesburg.

Brendan Joseph Clinch the architect of the building, designed several buildings in the 1930s and 1940s including the Catholic Churches in Rosebank and Yeoville, buildings for the Marist Brothers in Inanda and classrooms and hall for the Holy Family Convent in Parktown. The current School of Digital Arts is built on the site of the original hall of the parish. The Nunnery, on WITS campus, was the Convent High School established by the Sisters Of Mercy. It was converted into a makeshift theatre in the 1970s and still stands.

The stained glass windows of Holy Trinity Church are a remarkable expression of art and faith, transforming the church into a realm of vibrant colour and intricate design. These windows, considered among the finest examples of stained glass art in South Africa, were designed by F.X. Zettler and shipped from the Royal Bavarian Stained Glass Studio in Munich in 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II. Among these masterpieces is the great Rose window, which depicts Our Lady as Queen of the Angels. Brendan Clinch, the architect of Holy Trinity, described it as "a perfect harmony of colour," reflecting the glory of the sanctuary and portraying Our Lady as ever adoring her Son in the tabernacle below.
The red-bricked Holy Trinity building was added on in the 1980s. What was the original basement and parking has been renovated and repurposed into a soup kitchen and medical centre for homeless people. The latest addition is the remembrance garden for departed souls in the courtyard, which was built in 2014/5. The pulpit on the left-hand side of the church was removed, and a new one built closer to the centre of the church and the tabernacle which sat at the front centre of the church was moved to the front right, and the arch which sat over it was removed, the wall where the tabernacle sat has since been closed-up.

As mentioned, one of the current functions of the church is serving the homeless through its soup kitchen and medical clinic. The clinic was started in 2004 by students Bronwyn Weber and Michael Flynn. Living in the Trinity student residence, Weber decided to reach out to the church for collaboration after identifying a growing need for healthcare for homeless individuals living in Johannesburg’s inner city.
“I wanted to be able to volunteer, gain experience and offer my services particularly in my field of study and interest,” says Weber, now an emergency unit doctor in Cape Town. “Holy Trinity Catholic Church ran a soup kitchen every Monday evening. Students were encouraged to volunteer and assist at the soup kitchen, but I soon realised that many of the homeless from the inner city who came to the soup kitchen, also presented with, usually, minor ailments, asking for very basic medications, like paracetamol for a headache, or a dressing for a wound: ailments for which they could not and would not spend hours in a queue at an already under-resourced clinic.”

The church was already seen as a site for the city’s destitute, making it a suitable location to launch the initiative. But in 2012 the clinic had to be closed-down in order to get certification to manage a small pharmacy alongside it. In time, sponsors helped the students re-opening the clinic, and once the certification was received the clinic restarted in February 2016, gaining a steady stream of student volunteers and patients.
The main function of the church is to cater to the parish on weekends and during the week Midday Mass for workers in the office-blocks and shops around. And self-sacrificing catechists devote their energies to cultivating the faith of our youngsters in the halls beneath the church. Lastly, during each weekday there is a constant stream of people, mostly young, many non-Catholics, who come to enjoy a few moments of quiet in an atmosphere that they recognise to be special to this church – welcoming, prayerful, steeped in peace, not only because it is a haven of tranquillity in the midst of the city’s hubbub, but because the Lord is there.

2016 #FeesMustFall protests

During the August–October 2016 upsurge of the #FeesMustFall protest movement and accompanying police crackdown, the parish opened the church to students and others seeking refuge from the rubber bullets and stun grenades that were regularly being employed by the police to disperse crowds. In accordance with the traditional Christian custom of church sanctuary the church was opened to anyone fleeing the violence. Those who came in armed in any way were told to either dump their leave their weapons outside the church grounds or leave.

On 11 October, after a number of rubber bullets had been shot into the church grounds by a police Nyala patrolling the area, the head pastor Fr Graham Pugin took up position in front of the church's gate and attempted to bar the armoured vehicle from entering. After a tense standoff the Nyala seemed at first to back off and drive away, and the students emerged from the church to thank and congratulate Fr Graham. At this point the Nyala drove past the church at low speed while the police inside indiscriminately fired rubber bullets at Fr Graham and the students behind him.

Father Graham was hit on his upper lip and needed to be rushed to the Charlotte Maxeke Hospital for facial reconstruction surgery. The shooting of Fr Graham brought international attention to the parish,and was criticised by the Jesuit Institute South Africa and the Vatican ambassador to South Africa, among others. Later a police delegation led by the Deputy National Police Commissioner Gary Kruger visited Fr Graham as he was recovering to "apologise unconditionally" for the incident.

On 19 October, while the church was hosting talks aiming toward a "peace accord" to bring an end to the violence on South Africa's university campuses Prof. Adam Habib, the Vice-chancellor of Wits University, was chased out of the church by students. The students' actions were criticised by the Jesuit Institute, who said that the church as a "safe and neutral space has been violated by those who declared God's house to be exclusively theirs". As a result, the church is "no longer available as a venue for meeting" because the Jesuits believe "genuine attempts to dialogue and find a resolution to the crisis seem to have ended".