“He was a great communicator, brief and to the point”: Catholic Bishop in South Africa Eulogizes Late Predecessor

Aliwal, 12 August, 2025 / 6:38 PM

The late Bishop Fritz Lobinger, who passed on August 1 was an accomplished communicator, the Bishop of South Africa’s Catholic Diocese of Aliwal, his successor, has said. 

Speaking in a video interview that the Communications Department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) published on Wednesday, August 6, Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito recalls his past with the German-born Bishop, who passed on aged 96.

“He was a great communicator,” Bishop Kizito says of the late Bishop, who was at the helm of the Southern Africa Aliwal Diocese from February 1988 to April 2004.

He underscores the need for effective communication, drawing inspiration from Bishop Lobinger, whom he recalls for having been “very clear in his messages.”

“Whether preaching or speaking to you, he was brief and to the point,” says the Local Ordinary of Aliwal Diocese, recollecting how, after ordaining him to the Priesthood, the late Bishop commissioned him to a remote Parish and ensured he had a cell phone to facilitate communication.

He says, “In 1997, he bought me a cell phone. That cell phone kept us in touch because this place was so isolated.”

The communication and the frequent visits Bishop Lobinger made to the remote Mutlanga Parish in Eastern Cape Province, he says, enabled him, as a newly ordained Priest, to begin enjoying his apostolate in a locality where people had not had an encounter with a Priest of African origin.

“Whilst I was there, he kept on visiting me, and then I started to enjoy my apostolate in that place,” he recalls of his initial experience in an area where people had never been served by an African Priest. “I remember people asking me, Are you a Priest? I said yes, but they would respond, you are black. I said yes. There are also black Priests.”

In the video interview, he also talks about how the late Bishop’s closeness to the people inspired his successors in Aliwal Diocese to embrace the “community week” initiative he had introduced during his episcopate.

“He was a Priest, a Bishop who wanted community. He believed in community. He lived in a community,” he says, remembering that through the initiative, Bishop Lobinger visited and stayed with each Priest “every year for a week.”

Bishop Kizito, who began his Episcopal Ministry in February 2020 following the resignation of his immediate predecessor, Bishop Michael Wüstenberg, in September 2017, recommends the community week model to other Local Ordinaries.

He says, “I think we Bishops, we need to learn that model, a Community Week, to find out how they are doing, what are their struggles, what are your joys.”

In keeping with the spirit of his predecessors, Bishop Kizito says he has visited five communities in his Diocese in 2025. “I stay with the Priests, share meals with them, sleep where they sleep, and join them in whatever they do as we visit the communities.”

He further noted that, in addition to promoting community life, Bishop Lobinger, whose episcopal motto was “You are my brothers and sisters,” also advocated for close collaboration and justice for all.

“That was his motto—and he truly lived it. He sought inclusion, which is exactly what Pope Francis has been calling us to through this Synodal Church: participation, communion, and mission,” he says, adding that “Bishop Lobinger lived these already 50 years ago. He lived this Synodal Church.”

He continued, “He stood for the injustices. He used to walk with the people in what we call protests or toy-toy demonstrations. When there were a lot of massacres in our north, and people had to confront the apartheid government, he was there with them. He was a man deeply committed to justice.”

“We pray for his family in Germany; I’m in touch with them. We pray for the people of God in South Africa,” says Bishop Kizito in the video interview, in which he recounts his personal experiences with the late Bishop, whose funeral Mass and burial are scheduled for Friday, August 15, at the Aliwal North Cathedral.