Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was “a friend of South Africa’s poor,” church leaders said at her funeral service last Saturday. “Victims of rape and all kinds of abuse always knew that they could call on Winnie, who would be there for them,” Bishop Victor Phalana said. The former wife of the late South African President Nelson Mandela Read more
Apartheid challenger. Bishop Desmond Tutu’s biographer. Friend of Nelson Mandela. Fighter for justice. Dauntless South African journalist. Allister Sparks – RIP. He was 83. Sparks was the editor of South African newspaper The Rand Daily Mail. This paper was the voice of liberal opposition to the white Pretoria government and a champion of majority rule. Read more
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has backed the right of the terminally ill to be able to legally end their lives. Writing in England’s Observer newspaper, Archbishop Tutu said laws preventing this are an affront to those affected and their families. Calling for a “mind shift” in the right to die debate, he said Read more
The life and now the death of Nelson Mandela have touched the hearts of people around the world. This extraordinary man, sentenced to life imprisonment in 1962, who served 27 years in jail for his beliefs, walked free, without bitterness, to lead the rebuilding of South Africa as a multi-ethnic nation founded on human rights Read more
It’s taken a long time for us to let you go, Madiba. For several years, even as your health faltered irreparably and rumours of your increasing fragility could no longer be denied, the world refused to release its hold. We said prayers, sent love and held vigils until we had brought our Madiba — a Read more
A Memorial Mass to celebrate the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela will take place at St Patrick’s Cathedral next Monday at 16 December at 7:30. On his Facebook page, the Bishop of Auckland, Patrick Dunn, writes: “The news of his death a day or so earlier filled the world’s headlines. His quest for justice and equality, his Read more
David Olivier, principal of St Peter’ College in Palmerston North, New Zealand was once the principal of Christian Brothers’ College Mount Edmund in Pretoria, located just 1 kilometre from the state president’s residence. He has a personally signed copy of ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’. His wife bought it for him as a Father’s Day Read more
Pope Francis paid tribute to anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela for “forging a new South Africa” and said he hoped his example would inspire the nation to strive for “justice and the common good.” The pontiff praised the “steadfast commitment shown by Nelson Mandela in promoting the human dignity of all the nation’s citizens and in Read more
Prayers and services of remembrance were held across the world this weekend for the country’s first black President, Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday. South African Cardinal Wilfred Napier presided over a Requiem Mass at Emmanuel Cathedral in his archdiocese of Durban on Saturday night, which was followed by an ecumenical service and an all-night Read more
Nelson Mandela spent his first night in many weeks at his home in Johannesburg on Sunday after being discharged from hospital in Pretoria. The former South African president, 95, was admitted in early June for a recurring lung infection. The South African government has said his condition remains critical and can sometimes be unstable “Madiba’s Read more