From Our Vaults: 48 Years Ago: July 19, 1972

by Tamar SC · July 19, 2020

Prayers for the banned

Those in power in South Africa cannot see the gulf between Christian civilisation and what their apartheid policies actually achieved, Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban told a service at Emmanuel cathedral, held to commemorate the banning of Fr Cosmas Desmond OFM.

Archbishop Hurley prayed for “those who suffer banning and imprisonment” and for “those who exercise power who are beginning to doubt” the system.

He hoped that such doubt was behind the recent resignation of minister Theo Gerdener and the call by Rev Danie Malan, son of the late prime minister, for a reduction in the wage gap between white and “non-white” people.

Pope Paul VI on Vietnam

In one of his strongest statements yet on Indochina and Vietnam specifically, Pope Paul VI has called for a successful conclusion to the Paris Peace Treaty and free elections in a united Vietnam, and criticised the lack of progress made so far.

Editorial: Unity against abortion

In his editorial, acting editor Michael Shackleton commends the Catholic Women’s League for recognising that there is “a marked climate being created in South Africa to legalise abortion”. With modifications to the present abortion laws looming, he writes, Catholics “must be prepared to throw our whole weight into any anti-abortion campaign”.