By Post Staff

Often called the ‘conscience of South Africa,’ Archbishop Desmond Tutu died of complications from prostate cancer in Cape Town on Sunday morning. He was 90.

His body will lie in state at St George’s Anglican Cathedral and the church bells will ring for 10 minutes for five days at midday in his honor. Tutu’s funeral Mass will be held on Jan. 1, 2022.

The first Black archbishop of South Africa was a prominent leader in the anti-apartheid movement, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and named the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by the late Nelson Mandela in 1994. He also lent his voice to other human rights issues, supporting LGBTQ rights and independence for Palestine.

He was also known for supporting women and ordained many to serve in the church.

Tutu was born into a poor family in Northwest South Africa, saying of his upbringing that they were not affluent, but “we were not destitute either.” He excelled in high school and gained admission to medical school but couldn’t afford to attend. He became a teacher for several years and had become a server in the church, eventually seeking ordination into the clergy in 1960.

He studied theology in the United Kingdom for a few years, returning to South Africa to teach at a seminary and the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. As the anti-apartheid movement gained steam in the 1970s and 1980s, Tutu emerged as a gentle but strong voice stressing non-violent protest, and gaining status rivaled only by Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned president of the African National Congress.

While on a three-month sabbatical in New York City in 1984, Tutu spoke against apartheid at the United Nations. It was during that time that he learned he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the award ceremony in Oslo, Sweden, his acceptance speech was typically humble: “This award is for mothers, who sit at railway stations to try to eke out an existence, selling potatoes, selling mealies, selling produce. This award is for you, fathers, sitting in a single-sex hostel, separated from your children for 11 months a year…This award is for you, mothers in the KTC squatter camp, whose shelters are destroyed callously every day, and who sit on soaking mattresses in the winter rain, holding whimpering babies…This award is for you, the 3.5 million of our people who have been uprooted and dumped as if you were rubbish. This award is for you,” he said.

In 1985, Tutu became the Bishop of Johannesburg, rising to Archbishop of Cape Town the following year.

After Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and began negotiating the dismantling of apartheid, Tutu mediated the rival Black factions.

Mandela, who had met Tutu only once decades before at a debating event, appointed Tutu to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look into human rights abuses in 1996.

Tutu’s political positions did not always meet with public approval. Anti-apartheid organizations opposed Tutu’s intent to investigate their actions as well as the apartheid apparatus.

Tutu saw parallels between South Africa’s apartheid and Israel’s treatment of Palestine: his support for Palestinian rights drew criticism from some Jewish groups who accused him of anti-Semitism.

Tutu also supported equality for women, demonstrating it by ordaining a number of women into the Anglican clergy. He also was a proponent of LGBTQ rights and spoke out on combatting the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

He retired as archbishop in 1996 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, which he battled off and on for the rest of his life. He traveled widely in Africa, Europe and the United States, speaking in a variety of venues and even teaching briefly at a college in the early 2000s.

Returning to South Africa, he withdrew from public life in 2010.

Tutu is survived by his wife of 66 years Nomalizo Leah Shenxane; son Trevor Thamsanqa Tutu and daughters Mpho Andrea Tutu, Naomi Nontombi Tutu and Theresa Thandeka Tutu.

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