Stephen Brislin was born on 24 September 1956 in Welkom, in the Diocese of Kroonstad, South Africa. He studied philosophy at St John Vianney Seminary, Pretoria, and theology at the Missionary Institute in London, and was ordained a priest on 19 November 1983.
On 17 October 2006 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Kroonstad; he was consecrated on 28 January 2007. On 18 December 2009 he was named Archbishop of Cape Town, taking canonical possession of the see on 7 February 2010. He served as president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference from 2013 to 2019, and at the October 2014 Synod on the Family he was elected relator of one of its working groups.
Pope Francis created him a cardinal in the consistory of 30 September 2023, assigning him the titular church of Santa Maria Domenica Mazzarello. On 28 October 2024 he was transferred to Johannesburg as its Metropolitan Archbishop. He is a member of the Dicastery for the Clergy. He participated as a cardinal elector in the 2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.
Consequential Quotes
We need the collective wisdom of the whole of the Church, because God's Holy Spirit works throughout the Church, not only with bishops and priests and so on, but with all the Church and every component of it.
It's a healing that only God can bring about.
We have to be able to bring people to hope, to see beyond the reality, into the reality that was promised by Jesus Christ.
Together we go forward, each with our own particular roles and responsibilities.
The Mass is the source and summit, the Eucharist is the source and the summit of Christian life.
Major Works & Initiatives
Bishop of Kroonstad
Appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on 17 October 2006 and consecrated on 28 January 2007, returning as bishop to the diocese for which he had been ordained a priest.
Archbishop of Cape Town
Named on 18 December 2009 and installed on 7 February 2010; he led the archdiocese until his transfer to Johannesburg in 2024.
President of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference
Served as SACBC president from 2013 to 2019; as conference president he took part in the 2014 and 2015 Synods on the Family, serving as relator of a working group in 2014.
Archbishop of Johannesburg
Transferred from Cape Town on 28 October 2024. Member of the Dicastery for the Clergy.
Controversies
Welcome, blessings and the role of women
Brislin has taken a welcoming public approach to gay Catholics — in a 2017 interview he said the Church should be a home for gay people — and he supported Pope Francis's 2023 declaration Fiducia supplicans on blessings, while noting that it does not condone homosexuality. In 2014 he reaffirmed the Church's position against the ordination of women to the priesthood; the 2022 Cape Town archdiocesan synodal synthesis published under his leadership spoke instead of promoting the dignity of women and exploring, at the very least, the possibility of a female diaconate. Both sets of positions are contested in South African Catholic discussion (positions as reported by Wikipedia).