The non-sectarian, inclusive champion of universal human rights and one of the leaders of the anti-apartheid movement, South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Anglican Church of Southern Africa) has died at the age of 90 years.
Sadly Archbishop Tutu passed away at the Oasis Frail Care Centre in Cape Town this morning.
A thinker, born leader, awarded the Order of the Companions of Honour (Commonwealth); the Order for Meritorious Service (South Africa) and the Freedom of the City of Dublin; Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his campaign of non-violent opposition to South Africa’s white minority rule.
Archbishop Tutu was born of mixed Xhosa and Motswana heritage on October 7th 1931, to a poor family residing then in Klerksdorp, north-west South Africa. He trained as a teacher and married Nomalizo Leah Tutu, with whom he had several children. A lover and player of the sport of rugby; in 1960, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and in 1962 moved to the United Kingdom to study theology at King’s College London.
The South African icon who was loved far and beyond his native land had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and had been hospitalised several times in recent years, to treat infections associated with his cancer treatment.
During his life he had compiled several books of his speeches and sermons, of which just a few quotes, expressing his undeniable wisdom, can be read hereunder: –
“When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.”
“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.”
“When your dreams turn to dust, vacuum.”
“Without forgiveness, there’s no future.”
“It is small comfort to a mouse, if an elephant is standing on its tail, to say ‘I am impartial.’ In this instance, you are really supporting the elephant in its cruelty.” —— [Lest we here in Ireland forget, Click Here.]
“God is not upset that Gandhi was not a Christian, because God is not a Christian! All of God’s children and their different faiths help us to realize the immensity of God”.
In the sentiment of Mahatma Gandhi, when we practice the law of an eye for an eye, we all end up blind.”
“The way to understand any enemy is to realize that, from his perspective, he is not a villain but a hero.”
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”
“I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.”
“Do a little bit of good wherever you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to act despite it.”
“We learn from history that we don’t learn from history!”
“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
“There is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.”
“Though wrong gratifies in the moment, good yields its gifts over a lifetime.”
In ár gcroíthe go deo.
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