Guardian of the Light

Denis Hurley was a courageous opponent of South Africa's apartheid regime for 50 years, dubbed 'an ecclesiastical Che Guevara' by a South African official and 'guardian of the light' by Alan Paton. He was a champion of the reforms and 'spirit' of Vatican II, who was controversial for his views on birth control, married priests and women's ordination. Born in Cape Town in 1915 of Irish parents, he became the youngest Catholic bishop in the world in 1947 at 31. His career as an outspoken opponent of apartheid began in 1951 when, as chairman of the Southern African Bishops' Conference, he drafted the first of the ground-breaking pastoral letters in which the bishops denounced apartheid as 'blasphemy' and 'intrinsically evil'. Eventually, along with four other church leaders (including Desmond Tutu), he was regarded as one of the South African state's 'most wanted' political opponents. He was arrested in 1984 and accused of 'telling lies', but the prosecutor dropped the charges when it became clear that Hurley would be able to prove the truth of his statements. He received many death threats and on one occasion his house was petrol bombed.