PROUD TO BE DEAF: Ministry, saintliness and the history of the Catholic Deaf Community in South Africa, 1874-1994

461pp., paperback, UJ Press, Johannesburg, 2025

ISBN: 9780906785539

This history of Catholic ministry to the Deaf community in South Africa over 120 years provides a background to Deaf people’s emerging understanding of themselves as a dignified people with their own language and culture.

"The book inspires newness, boldness, and resilience in ministry to approach the Kingdom of God and encounter the face of Christ crucified (crucified by the forces of phonocentrism and audism). There are many lessons to be learnt that gives voice and appeal to what Ruben Xulu's image evokes: 'Christ was Africa crucified'. In sum, the book pronounces words of blessing to remember and sign 'a new journey' together from the heart." Associate Professor Glenn Morrison, School of Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame, Fremantle, Australia

Mark James is a Dominican priest who has worked with Catholic Deaf communities in the Archdiocese of Johannesburg and the Diocese of Manzini, Eswatini, for the past 20 years. He is co-ordinator of the Office for Ministry to the Deaf Community under the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and an honorary lecturer in the History of Christianity, School of Philosophy, Religion and Classics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.