The Dominican Thread Through Denis Hurley’s Life

The Dominican Order celebrated its 800th birthday and PADDY KEARNEY recalls the role the order played in the life of the city’s late Archbishop Denis Hurley.

In his 45 years as a bishop, Archbishop Denis Hurley naturally related to very many orders and congregations of priests, sisters and brothers. But for this Oblate of Mary Immaculate there was undoubtedly something very special about his relationship with the Dominicans, who celebrate 800 years of their foundation this year.

This very special relationship began in 1924 when Denis Hurley’s father was appointed lighthouse keeper at the Clansthal lighthouse on the Natal south coast, near Umkomaas — one of the most remote and isolated lighthouses along the whole length of the South African coast.

The family had earlier been at the lighthouses of Cape Point, Robben Island and Hood Point in East London. Denis’s primary schooling had begun in the little primary school on Robben Island. But schooling for children at Clansthal was a real problem, and a big concern for the Hurleys. The nearest government school was 8km away, with no available transport. The only solution was boarding school but Theresa Hurley insisted that it must be a Catholic school.  She went up and down the coast looking for a Catholic boarding school. Eventually she saw an advert in The Southern Cross for a primary school at St Elmo’s convent in Umzumbe, run by the Newcastle Dominicans, 50 km from Clansthal.

The sisters at that time had no boarders, nor plans to take boarders, but Theresa managed to persuade them to take her children, Eileen (10) and Denis (9) as of July 1924, living in the convent at Umzumbe for two-and-a-half years.

“We were the only two boarders, and we slept upstairs in the convent,” Archbishop Hurley later recalled. Eileen had a cubicle in the nuns’ dormitory, just like any of the sisters.

Much later in life, Archbishop Hurley thought that the idea of becoming a priest might have been inspired by his mother, much encouraged by the sisters. “It was accepted within the family and, of course, among the sisters that I was going to be a priest”.

Once Eileen and Denis completed their primary schooling at St Elmo’s, there was another schooling dilemma for the Hurleys. This time there was a need to look much further afield. Fortunately they discovered that the Newcastle Dominicans had two schools in Newcastle, 300km away, which would be suitable.

So Eileen and Denis began their high schooling there in 1928, with Denis learning Latin at the St Thomas’ School for Boys, helped by Sr Enda who gave the boy extra lessons. What an important foundation she was laying for someone who would attend lectures in Latin in Rome as an Oblate scholastic, would conduct countless liturgical Masses and other ceremonies in Latin, and would have to follow all the proceedings and give speeches in Latin at the Second Vatican Council!

Next to the school was an area known as Lennoxton, with the Incandu river flowing through it. The boys swam there as often as possible. On the far bank there were many picnic spots in the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains, and it was to those spots that the school made regular visits.

One such day was May 24, 1928, a holiday known as Empire Day. For lunch the boys assembled at one spot to be given their meal, but three boys weren’t present: Hurley, Marshman and Rossiter. Not much attention was paid to their absence until the end of the day when everyone got ready to go back across the river to the school. Sr Josephine Ryan OP, a disciplinarian, began to panic but the other sisters tried to calm her and she comforted herself by saying that “Hurley is such an excellent boy”, one who wouldn’t get up to mischief.

Later that evening, the prioress, Mother Albert, insisted that a search party go back across the river to try to find them. She and the other sisters were accompanied by school chaplain Fr Charles Hugo OMI and several policemen. In full habit the nuns waded through the river, with Mother Albert falling many times.

Fortunately a boy named Delease had told Sr Josephine that he had seen the three boys going into a cave and also that he had lent his hat to Denis Hurley for the day, so everyone was looking out for that hat — and they found it outside a cave. They weren’t able to do anything more that night because it was so dark, so they agreed to resume the search at 6am the next day.

Eventually the boys were then hauled out of the cave and found it very difficult to look at bright sunlight after being in total darkness for 24 hours. While they had been in the cave, just in their short-sleeved shirts and shorts, the boys huddled together for warmth, and prayed and sang. They had nothing to eat or drink for those 24 hours. Later on, they remembered that Denis said: “If we get out of here alive, I will become a priest.” What an amazing experience for a boy who had grown up watching his father working with the powerful beams of lighthouses to be plunged into total darkness for 24 hours.

Within the next year, his father had a mental breakdown, was medically boarded and had to undergo treatment in Pretoria for 18 months.

It was the time of the “Great Depression” and suddenly Theresa Hurley found herself having to provide for her family of four children, without a house or a job, having to pay boarding school fees for four children. The future must have seemed bleak indeed for the Hurleys.

First to the rescue were the Newcastle Dominicans, who provided temporary accommodation for the family in a converted classroom at St Elmo’s, and then continued to assist with remission of school fees for Eileen and the two younger siblings, Jerry and Chris.

Bishop Henri Delalle, an Oblate, paid for Denis to be a boarder at St Charles’ Marist College in Pietermaritzburg, on the understanding that he would be joining the Oblate congregation.

This was a powerful example of the Church providing a compassionate safety net for a family in need. It made a deep impression on Denis, leading to his lifelong concern and compassion for the poor.

Fast forward to Denis’s priestly studies overseas. First to Ireland for his novitiate with the Oblates, then in Rome at the Oblate International Scholasticate. There he met the Dominican brethren for the first time because he did his philosophical studies at the Angelicum (now St Thomas’s University) which is run by the Dominicans.

The Dominican priest who made the greatest impression on him was a philosophy professor, Fr Vincentius Kuiper. On one occasion Fr Kuiper asked Br Hurley why he was not taking any notes. “Father,”  he replied, “I don’t need to. Your presentation is so logical that I can remember all of it without a note.”

A friendly “home away from home” was at Villa Rosa, the convent of the Newcastle Dominicans. Br Denis greatly appreciated the tea they provided on every visit, because this was not part of the culture of the Oblate Scholasticate where only coffee and wine were available.

Villa Rosa seemed to be a great place for South Africans studying in Rome, to meet and talk their heads off while drinking tea. No wonder then that this was the place Br Denis chose to say his first Mass after his ordination on July 9, 1939.

As a member of the Central Preparatory Commission for the Second Vatican Council and during the council, Archbishop Hurley would stay at Villa Rosa.

At the Council he met two great French Dominicans, Yves Congar and Marie-Dominique Chenu, who were probably the most influential of all the theological experts (periti) whom the archbishop regarded as having made the Council.

They, in turn, were very impressed by Archbishop Hurley and considered him one of the 16 bishops who could be regarded as key allies in the fight for an open, forward-looking Council.

In Rome at the time of the Council was a Dominican priest from South Africa doing postgraduate studies at the Angelicum. He was living with some of the Council periti and with journalists covering the Council. This was Fr Albert Nolan, who recalled many years later:  “Each day [the theologians] would come home with the latest news of what had happened at the Council that day. I cannot tell you how often the name of a certain Archbishop Denis Hurley cropped up.”

In January 1976, at the height of apartheid, the bishops of Southern Africa officially decided to open their schools to all races. But the bishops were beaten to it by the Association of Women Religious who in 1975 called for the previously white schools to begin accepting black pupils and asked the bishops’ conference to give the resolution “explicit support and approval”.

Mother Genevieve Hickey, regional vicar of the Cabra Dominicans, had the bit firmly between her teeth and was not willing to wait for discussions in the bishops’ conference.

She wanted the Association of Women Religious resolution implemented as soon as possible, at least in the schools under her jurisdiction. She was described as a “woman of great integrity and determination” who was aware that the younger sisters in her congregation no longer felt in conscience able to teach in whites-only schools. They hadn’t come to Africa for that purpose. And so, at the beginning of 1976 the Cabra Dominicans  started admitting a few black girls to their schools, even though the bishops hadn’t given final approval for this step to be taken.

A famous phone call took place between Archbishop Hurley and Mother Genevieve. We don’t know exactly what was said, but the archbishop wanted the opening of the schools to be done in a collegial way. But Sr Genevieve Hickey felt that quite enough talking had been done already. Now it was time for action. A clash of two highly intelligent and determined Church leaders. It was an occasion when the bishops had to catch up with the sisters!

One of those directly involved in the opening of Catholic schools was Cabra Dominican Sister Margaret Kelly, who was principal of their school in Port Elizabeth. Sr Kelly featured again in the life of Archbishop Hurley when she was appointed coordinator of the bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission, and did wonderful work especially at the time of the first democratic elections in 1994.

The Dominican Sisters featured prominently in the life of Denis Hurley. But one also needs to say something about how a Dominican Brother: Philippe Denis who in 1997 produced the first collection of Hurley papers, published under the title  Facing the Crisis, which included an excellent article on Hurley’s role in the Council. Br Denis recently gave a paper in France on the Archbishop’s views on reconciliation in South Africa and is currently playing a leading role in bringing out a book of selected Hurley letters.

Early in 2004, Archbishop Hurley took part in one of the annual assemblies of the Sant’Egidio Community in Rome. Before he left he first addressed a provincial chapter of the Dominicans in Pietermaritzburg. Fr Mark James recalled that he had the impression that the archbishop was speaking off the cuff, reminiscing about his days at the Angelicum and the significance of his study of Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican theologian. This was Archbishop Hurley’s last public address in South Africa.

After returning from the Sant’Egidio assembly, he was far too active for a man of 88 who had just taken a long flight. On Friday, February 13, at breakfast in the Oblate residence Sabon House, Fr George Purves told Archbishop Hurley:  “You are amazing; you are here, there and everywhere”. The previous afternoon he had received Dominican visitors: Sr Marie-Henry, Sr Catherina and Sr Maria Tuohy. The sisters found him both happy and also a little sad because of what the Vatican had done to his beloved International Commission on English in the Liturgy and also the Church’s failure to fully implement the vision of Vatican II.

There was a pessimism and defeatism which Sr Marie-Henry had never before seen in him. She cheered him up by saying that the many people with whom he had shared the vision of Vatican II would not allow it to die.

That Friday was the day of the golden jubilee of Fatima Convent School which had been started by the Newcastle Dominicans, and opened by Archbishop Hurley in 1954. He concelebrated the Golden Jubilee Mass with Cardinal Wilfrid Napier in Fatima parish church and then attended the celebratory tea, meeting many old friends.

While he was being driven home, he had a lively conversation with Fr Derrick Butt OMI, who was driving him home. He then seemed to lose consciousness, and died shortly after arriving at Sabon House. An extraordinary end to an extraordinary life which intersected from childhood to his last hours with the Dominicans.

The Newcastle Dominicans had schooled him and given much help to his family in his youth. His first Mass had been said in their Villa Rosa convent in Rome. His last public address in South Africa had been to the Dominican brethren. Now his last Mass was celebrated at the Newcastle Dominican school in Durban North.

Paddy Kearney is Archbishop Hurley’s biographer. The Dominicans of KwaZulu-Natal are celebrating their order’s 800th birthday on August 9 in Durban.