The
S outher n C ross
March 9 to March 15, 2016
Reg No. 1920/002058/06
No 4967
www.scross.co.za
The real life of a parish priest
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Meet the patron saint of journalists
Pilgrimage of Peacemakers in photos
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Leadership void key in student riots BY BRONWEN DACHS
V
IOLENCE and vandalism at South African universities are reactions to inequality in the country, according to Archbishop William Slattery of Pretoria, spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC). At least four university campuses have been turned into battlegrounds with protests by students who last year, after nationwide marches, won their demand for no increases in fees in 2016. North-West University in Mafikeng has shut down indefinitely after students burned an administration compound that included a science centre. The students were protesting against the suspension of a student council leader. The burning of the science centre will affect the wider community, Archbishop Slattery noted. “The science centre was also used by schools in the region that do not have their own laboratories,” he said, adding that thousands of younger school children as well as university students will be affected. At the University of Pretoria, protesting students are demanding to be taught in languages other than Afrikaans, which they identify with apartheid. Other universities where studies have been disrupted through violence include the University of Cape Town and the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. The objection to being taught in Afrikaans “has a lot to do with a feeling among South Africans that their languages are pushed aside”, Archbishop Slattery said. “Very few white South Africans have made the effort to learn even a few words” of local African languages, he said. “There is institutional racism throughout the country, which is still dominated by white culture.” “Apartheid was successful in separating people racially, economically, geographically and linguistically. Integration is happening in churches and other places, but the pace of change is too slow,” Archbishop Slattery said. “While inequality is felt acutely at univer-
T
Cardinal Wilfrid Napier is interviewed on camera after the official opening of the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban in November. He turned 75 on March 8. (Photo: Günther Simmermacher)
Young people after a Mass for peace at the University of Pretoria. (Photo: Kim Ludbrook, EPA) sities, and this is being articulated with force, it is present throughout South Africa and needs to be resolved by the whole country,” the archbishop said. There is a worrying lack of strong leadership, he said, noting that “it seems that the country’s leaders are trying to catch up” with events on campuses. Also, he noted, the “radical students seem to be leaderless”, which makes for a “very serious and volatile situation”. The student protesters’ “lack of leadership could explain the burning of paintings” depicting white people and the petrol-bombing of vice-chancellor Max Price’s office at the University of Cape Town last month, he said. Black South Africans’ “anger at inequality and injustices has been bubbling for a long time and rose to the surface at universities last year,” Archbishop Slattery said. President Jacob Zuma condemned the violence at universities in a statement, which said that “the burning of university buildings at a time when we are prioritising the education of our youth is inexplicable and can never be condoned”. The president agreed in October to student demands not to increase fees in 2016 and said that the government would spend more to help poor students meet the cost of higher education.
SA’s cardinal turns 75 S STAFF REPORTER
OUTH AFRICA’S only current cardinal turned 75 on March 8—a red letter date which also means that after 35 years as a bishop, he has to offer the pope his resignation, as required by canon law. However, until the pope accepts the cardinal’s resignation as archbishop of Durban, and he may well delay that decision, Cardinal Napier will continue to serve in his position. And as a cardinal, he will still be eligible to vote in a papal election, should the need arise, until he reaches the age of 80. Cardinal Napier was born in Matatiele in the Swartberg on March 8, 1941. His father was a farmer in the area. He attended Holy Cross School and later Little Flower High School in Ixopo. After matriculating, he went to Ireland to follow his vocation and studied at the Franciscan novitiate in Killarney. From there he completed his BA in Galway before moving to the Catholic University in Louvain, Belgium, graduating with a Masters in Theology. Ordained priest in Kokstad on July 25, 1970, Fr Napier was parish priest at Lusikisiki and Tabankulu before being ordained bishop of Kokstad in February 1981 by Archbishop Denis Hurley. He worked closely for many years throughout the turbulent 1980s with the man he would succeed as archbishop of Durban at the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Confer-
ence, first as vice-president and then as president. He served a second stint as SACBC president in the 2000s. Cardinal Napier was present at the signing of the Peace Accord in 1991 and was actively involved in discussions with both Church and political leaders during the apartheid era. In June 1992 he was appointed archbishop of Durban, and in February 2001 he was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II—South Africa’s second cardinal, after the late Cardinal Owen McCann of Cape Town. He has taken part in two conclaves: that of 2005 which elected Pope Benedict XVI and that of 2013 which elected Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio—who, like Cardinal Napier, received the red hat in 2001—as Pope Francis. Cardinal Napier presently serves on the Council for Economy at the Vatican and on the Synod on the Family. He has received numerous awards, including an honorary Doctorate from the University of Galway and the Living Legend award in Durban. The cardinal’s work takes him all over the world and he speaks six languages fluently, but he says he is happiest working among the people in his archdiocese’s parishes. The outspoken and sometimes controversial cardinal has established many friends among Durban’s religious leaders—especially Muslim, Hindu and Christian—particularly to assist the poor at the new Denis Hurley Centre, next to Emmanuel cathedral.
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