Archbishop Denis Hurley, who has died aged 88, was a champion of human rights, known especially for his outstanding contribution to the struggle against apartheid, his advocacy for the plight of the poor and dispossessed, and his commitment to a more just and peaceful society in South Africa.
Courageous and outspoken, he criticised so-called "Bantu" education and the successive South African governments that supported it. As a churchman, he took an independent stand on issues such as married priests and women priests. In 1981 he called on the Irish Rugby Football Union to call off its tour of South Africa.
He understood how difficult it was for white South Africans to change their attitudes, which he admitted sharing as a young person growing up. "We just accepted the fact that we were a superior race, and up to high school no one ever mentioned to us that we should not think that way. When I went overseas to study I met black people from all over the world and got a different view."
Denis Eugene Hurley was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 9th, 1915. His father, from Skibbereen, Co Cork, was the lighthouse keeper at Robben Island, where he spent five years as a child. In later life he joked that both he and Nelson Mandela had Robben Island experiences, "though mine were certainly more pleasant".
Having completed his early education at Pietermaritzburg, he undertook his novitiate in Ireland in 1932 with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at Cahermoyle, Co Limerick. Following studies in Rome he was ordained in 1939. Between 1940 and 1946 he served as curate at the Emmanuel Cathedral, Durban, and then as superior of St Joseph's Oblate Scholastic at Cedar. In 1947 he became Titular Bishop of Turzi and Vicar Apostolic of Natal, making him, at 31, the youngest Catholic bishop in the world. With the establishment of the hierarchy in South Africa, he was appointed Archbishop of Durban in 1951. He retired in 1992 and served as parish priest of the Emmanuel Cathedral until January 2002.
He became the first elected president of the bishops' conference in 1952. He served as its leader until 1961, and again between 1981 and 1987.
The bishops were slow to come to grips with apartheid. He acknowledged that the Catholic Church was firmly rooted in the colonial atmosphere that inspired the political, economic and social structures of South Africa. At the same time, Catholics were very conscious of being a minority church, of the antipathies of the Dutch Reformed Church and taunts of the Roomse gevaar (Roman danger).
"For the first 20 years of our life as a conference, we relied almost totally and naïvely on the power of statements and pastoral letters to change hearts and minds."
Through his influence, however, the conference became increasingly outspoken and active against apartheid, which it declared in 1957 to be "intrinsically evil". By 1976 the bishops decided to integrate Catholic schools and seminaries.
In that year he founded Diakonia, a Durban-based ecumenical agency of social concern.
Archbishop Hurley was repeatedly threatened and intimidated by the regime. He faced threats on his life, and his home in Durban was firebombed. He refused to be silenced. One government minister referred to him as "an ecclesiastical Che Guevara".
In 1984 he was brought before the courts and charged with making "false statements" about atrocities committed by Koevoet (Crowbar), a South African paramilitary police unit in Namibia. In 1985 he was acquitted when the prosecutor announced that the state would not proceed with the trial because its case was based on "rumour and hearsay evidence".
The acquittal followed a warning to the South African ambassador in Washington from Congressman Robert Drinan that "all hell would break loose" if he was sent to trial.
He continued to speak out, challenging the injustice inherent in apartheid such as the country's notorious migratory laws that separated families for months at a time. He was a trenchant critic of the forced removal of families from vacant lands that uprooted hundreds of thousands of black South Africans from their traditional homelands. He also defended those who were conscientiously opposed to serving in a military that was based on apartheid.
The relatively peaceful transition to democracy was "quite a miracle". With the release of Nelson Mandela and the ending of apartheid, he pointed to the challenge of poverty and economic justice. Along with that, another great task - inculturation - had to be pursued, "not an easy one in the context of the rainbow nation".
On his retirement in 1992, he became archbishop emeritus. He was chancellor of the University of Natal from 1993 to 1998, and always believed that education was the key to true transformation. He was a member and one-time chairman of the Institute for Race Relations and a founding member of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa.
Deeply religious, he was one of South Africa's more radical churchmen. Ultra-conservative Catholics often singled him out for abuse, particularly for his role at the Second Vatican Council. He publicly dissented from the encyclical Humanae Vitae, and this stance almost certainly cost him a red hat.
In 1993 he spoke in favour of married priests and women priests. In 2001 he voiced his support for the use of condoms, but only in very limited circumstances, for example, where one spouse was infected with HIV. "It's a clash of moral values, and in such clashes people should be free to choose, especially to choose the more important value, in this case the life of a spouse."
Also in 2001 he called for an alliance of liberals, humanitarians and religious believers to hold back the tide of economic globalisation and perhaps even to transform it into a constructive force. He was conferred with honorary degrees by six North American universities, including Notre Dame and Georgetown.
He was in 1997 honoured by decree of the president of Italy, who made him a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 1999 he received the Order of Meritorious Service from president Mandela.
Archbishop Denis Hurley: born November 9th, 1915; died February 13th, 2004