Denis Eugene Hurley, OMI OMSG (9 November 1915 – 13 February 2004) was a South African Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of Natal from 1946 to 1951 and as Archbishop of Durban from 1951 to 1992. He was a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

He was born in Cape Town and spent his early years on Robben Island, where his father was the lighthouse keeper. In 1951, Hurley was appointed Archbishop of Durban, becoming the youngest archbishop in the world at the time.

Hurley was an active participant in the Second Vatican Council, which he described as "the greatest project of adult education ever held in the world".

An outspoken opponent of apartheid, as chairman of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, Hurley drafted the first of the ground-breaking pastoral letters in which the bishops denounced apartheid as "blasphemy" and "intrinsically evil." Upon his retirement as archbishop, he served as the chancellor of the University of Natal.

Life

Denis Hurley was born in Cape Town to Irish parents, spending his early years on Robben Island, where his father was the lighthouse keeper. Educated at St Charles College in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, he joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) in 1931 and in the following year was sent to Ireland for his novitiate.

In 1933, Hurley was sent to the Angelicum University (now known as Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas) in Rome to study philosophy and theology.

On 11 January 1951, the Vicariate Apostolic of Natal was elevated to the Archdiocese of Durban and Hurley became archbishop, also the youngest in the world at the time. At the council itself, Hurley was elected to the Commission for Seminaries, Studies and Catholic Education. During the council, he gave ten speeches and made four written submissions.

During the council, Hurley wrote a series of anonymous articles for the South African Catholic weekly newspaper "The Southern Cross". In 2001 he wrote a 17-part series of memories of Vatican II for The Southern Cross. In recounting its informal cycle of lectures, workshops and long evenings of debates over dinner with interested members of the clergy and laity, Hurley observed that the presence of so many scholars who had been called to Rome to assist with the work of Vatican II had created "the greatest project of adult education ever held in the world." These articles provided the basis for his posthumously pub

lished memoirs of the Council, Keeping the Dream Alive.

Hurley was described as "...an eloquent and forceful preacher, ...mild-mannered and soft-spoken away from the pulpit. He was a man of formidable intellect, so much so that he was held in awe by his clergy.

Hurley was an outspoken opponent of apartheid, and was a driving force in a 1957 declaration by the bishops of South Africa that described apartheid as "intrinsically evil". In the late 1970s Hurley held a daily silent protest, standing in front of the central Durban Post Office for a period each day with a placard expressing his opposition to apartheid and the displacement of people from their homes. Hurley also worked to assist young men who for reasons of conscience were opposed to joining the South African military.

The Hurley Case

A lawsuit, known as The Hurley Case, managed to secure the release of Paddy Kearney, a political opponent of the ruling National Party detained under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. According to South African law professor Tony Mathews, the case "Hurley and Another vs the Minister of Law and Order" became "the most important civil rights ruling for several decades" and is still taught in law schools today.

Hurley became actively involved, turning up in black communities the day they were due to be forcibly removed. On hearing that children had died shortly after one such removal, Hurley counted their graves and recorded their names and ages. Then he released the details to the press, much to the fury of the state. In response to the weak response of South Africa's churches to apartheid, Hurley founded an ecumenical agency, Diakonia, dedicated to social justice. Hurley said his greatest struggle was convincing South African Catholics that social justice was integral to their faith rather than an optional extra. Hurley was nicknamed Mehl'emamba (Eyes of the Mamba) by appreciative Zulus.

Thomas More College

Hurley played a key role in supporting Chris Hurley (his brother) and Robin Savory in founding Thomas More College. His brother Chris later became the second headmaster of the school. Archbishop Hurley also wrote the school song, "God Our Maker". There is a memorial garden dedicated to him located on the school grounds.

Last years

On retiring as Archbishop of Durban in 1992, Hurley became chancellor of the University of Natal from 1993 to 1998. He also served as a parish priest for ten years at Emmanuel Cathedral, Durban, where he had officiated so many years earlier as a curate.

Hurley was seen by some as a "liberal". Many believe that his respectful and very careful questioning of Humanae Vitae in 1968 made the cardinalate an impossibility. Hurley died as he was being driven back to the Oblate retirement community in Durban after a celebration of the 50th anniversary of a school at whose dedication he had presided as a young archbishop.

Honours

Hurley received the following honours during his lifetime:

{| class="wikitable"

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! Year || Honorary Degrees || Civilian Honour

|-

| 1970 || Doctor of Laws, Notre Dame University, Indiana ||  

|-

| 1972 ||   || Civic Honours, City of Durban

|-

| 1975 ||   || Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (Légion d'honneur) France

|-

| 1978 || Doctor of Laws, University of Natal, Durban ||  

|-

| 1982 || Doctor of Humane Letters, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC ||  

|-

| 1986 || Doctor of Laws, De Paul University, Chicago ||  

|-

| 1986 || Doctor of Sacred Theology, Santa Clara University, California ||  

|-

| 1987 || Doctor of Humane Letters, Georgetown University, Washington, DC ||  

|-

| 1988 || Doctor of Social Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town ||  

|-

| 1988 || Doctorate, University of Leuven, Belgium ||  

|-

| 1992 ||   || Freedom of the City of Durban

|-

| 1992 ||   || Freedom of the City of Pietermaritzburg

|-

| 1993 || Doctorate, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago ||  

|-

| 1996 || Doctorate, Saint Paul's University, Ottawa ||  

|-

| 1992 ||   || Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (Onorificenza de Grande Ufficiale)

|-

| 1992 ||   || Order of Meritorious Service (1st Class), South Africa

|}

Legacy

According to Gerald Shaw writing for The Guardian, "It was in part due to his sustained moral crusade and that of other churchmen that the transition to democracy, when it came in 1994, was accepted by white people in peace and good order." There is a bronze statue of Hurley at the Kwa Thintwa School, KZN commissioned by the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Zweli Mkhize.

The Denis Hurley Association of is a UK registered charity established in London "to promote and raise funds for the Denis Hurley Centre in Durban, South Africa".

In 2017, a shrine to Hurley was opened at Durban's Emmanuel Cathedral and his successor, Cardinal Wilfred Napier, published a prayer soliciting Hurley's intercession and expressed a desire for an official sainthood cause to be opened for him in the archdiocese.

References

Sources

  • Denis O.P, P., Facing the Crisis Selected Texts of Archbishop D.E. Hurley (Cluster Publications, 1997).
  • Gamley, A. Denis Hurley A Portrait by Friends (Cluster Publications, 2001).
  • Kearney, P Memories: The memoirs of Archbishop Denis E Hurley OMI (Cluster Publications, 2006).
  • Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) obituary for Archbishop Hurley
  • "Hurley bio: A full life of love", The Southern Cross
  • "Archbishop Hurley: A great man's 50 years", The Southern Cross
  • National Catholic Reporter obituary
  • Vatican Council II reminiscences by Archbishop Hurley
  • The Daily Telegraph (UK) obituary
  • The Independent (UK)obituary
  • Honouring the Burly Hurley by Stephen Coan, The Witness, August 17, 2009
  • Archbishop Hurley always took a stand for peace and justice, Bishop Rubin Phillip, Daily News, 24 April 2012