Pope gets embroiled in unholy Cape row

The pope has been dragged into a legal row involving a group of Cape Town nuns.

Parishioners of the Holy Cross Catholic Church are taking the nuns to court over the sale of six cottages in the historic District Six.

The parishioners, who occupy the Searle Street cottages, will today ask the Cape Town High Court for an interim interdict preventing the sale of the cottages.

They argue that, because the property has "special historic significance", Pope Francis should make a ruling in terms of canon law.

They also want long-term leases registered in their name.

In the 1960s and 1970s, almost all residents of District Six - a largely coloured area - were subject to mass removals under apartheid's Group Areas Act.

But the tenants of the cottages were able to stay on, thanks to the intervention of the church.

Sean Savage, one of the six applicants in the case, said his family had occupied one of the cottages since 1928.

Many of the occupants claim the lease agreements were for the "duration of a lifetime" and that the property was held in trust and could never be sold.

The occupants of the cottages were told in a "disrespectful and uncompassionate manner", by way of an online advertisement, that their homes were for sale.

They say they were told by e-mail that they must apply for new leases on the cottages.

But the provincial head of the Sisters of the Holy Cross order of nuns, Sister Loretta Oliphant, said in court papers that the property was not held in trust and the occupants were "fabricating claims".

She said the order was not aware of any historic significance or heritage attaching to the property.

The cottages had been sold for almost R2.3-million to alleviate the church's "worsening" financial position over the years.

Savage said he feels helpless and the dispute with the church reminded him of the forced evictions under apartheid.

"These are the people who are supposed to be a beacon of hope.

"I cannot go to church when [the nuns] do not practise what they preach."