Cardinal: With death of Beyers Naude, South Africa loses 'prophet'

Published: 2004-09-09

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- With the death of the Rev. Beyers Naude, an Afrikaner cleric who condemned his church's support for apartheid, South Africa "has lost one of the great prophets of our time," said Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa. Rev. Naude, who died in Johannesburg Sept. 7 at the age of 89, "was a true Afrikaner through and through, at the same time as he had this sense of responsibility that there must be justice for all," Cardinal Napier said in a Sept. 7 telephone interview from Durban. "He stuck with this all his life, in a magnificent way. He was rejected by his own people, yet with no bitterness he held on to his own principles," said the cardinal, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference. "I value the time I was able to spend with him in various delegations of church leaders," Cardinal Napier said, noting that Rev. Naude "had a humble way of urging people to strive for justice."

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