20 years since death of Denis Hurley, courageous man of action

Dr Raymond Perrier

Prominent in the Denis Hurley Centre is a 2m-wide copy of a famous photo from the archives of this newspaper showing the Freedom March of September 1989.

It features Archbishop Denis Hurley – always the tallest in every photo – standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the leaders of other Christian denominations and faiths marching along Queen Street (now Denis Hurley Street) to speak out against apartheid.

It reminds me every day of the role that Hurley and other religious leaders played in the struggle against injustice; it is uppermost in my mind today as we mark 20 years since his death on February 13, 2004, aged almost 90.

Having been made the youngest bishop in the entire Catholic world in 1947, and retiring in 1992, Hurley’s time as head of the Catholics in Durban and beyond saw the rise and final over-turning of a deeply un-Christian model of government that treated most human beings as expendable and placed a small self-proclaimed group over the rest, fuelled by their greed for money and power.

Hurley was fearless in standing with other faith leaders in opposing injustice and in placing himself firmly alongside those who were forgotten and marginalised in society.

While a man of deep prayer, he knew that prayer without action (as it says in the Bible) was empty.

He stepped out of his magnificent Cathedral, stepped out of his Catholic ghetto, and stepped outside the bonds of his culture and race: he lived his life in a way that genuinely showed he believed that all are created equally in the image of the one God. Easy to say, so hard to do.

On his death, Archbishop Desmond Tutu prophesied: “His name will be etched in gold in the annals of our motherland.”

For Ela Gandhi he was “the epitome of kindness”; Fatima Meer said: “He lives on in our hearts, our minds and our consciences”.

What is Hurley saying to our consciences today? Apartheid may have been defeated but South Africa remains a troubled country and far from the beloved country (so named by Hurley’s dear friend, Alan Paton).

We recite our list of woes almost daily like a litany: “From load shedding – deliver us; from corruption –deliver us; from xenophobia – deliver us; from urban decay – deliver us; from racial prejudice – deliver us.”

But again, prayer without action is empty. People of faith need to stand up and speak out as Hurley did – and they are looking to their leaders to lead them. But it sometimes seems as if the successors of Hurley and his contemporaries are not sure how to respond and so remain silent.

Looking at what enabled Hurley to be so bold might give us some indicators of how we can live up to the standard that he set.

First, he recognised that we can achieve so much more by working together than staying in our own comfortable tribes. That is why Diakonia Council of Churches was such a force for good back in the day. He sided with the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and exemplified this in his own life – giving up the bishop’s palace to live in a small flat at the back of his office.

He realised that being a priest did not make him an expert on everything and so he read voraciously and surrounded himself with people from a range of backgrounds to learn from their expertise.

He embraced the best of the non-religious elements of society, and was president of the South African Institute of Race Relations and also chancellor of the University of Natal as it transitioned to UKZN.

He made sure that his closest advisers were not “yes men” but independent thinkers who would challenge him and stretch him, both men and women, ordained and lay people.

But most of all he was not afraid.

People who are afraid don’t speak out.

People who are afraid cling to the trappings of office. People who are afraid hide in their churches.

People who are afraid don’t listen to advice. Whether it is politicians, religious leaders or just ordinary readers of this newspaper, the temptation is to retreat and hide and “look after me and mine”.

But to quote from Hurley’s motto as a bishop: “Where the Spirit is, there is freedom.”

I don’t know what he is thinking as he looks down from heaven at Durban and our faith communities; but I am sure that he is praying for us and willing us on to find the Spirit that will enable us to lead all people, especially the most marginalised, to true freedom.

* Dr Perrier is the director of the Denis Hurley Centre

The Mercury