Why We Must Honour the Past

by Dr Raymond Perrier · Published November 5, 2023 · Updated November 5, 2023

Paddy Kearney with Archbishop Denis Hurley in 1999. The late biographer of Hurley is the subject of Raymond Perrier’s doctoral thesis.

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed that my byline at the top of this page now has the letters “Dr” in front of my name. (And if you had not noticed before, I have made sure that you definitely have now.) That is because I was recently awarded a PhD by the University of KwaZulu-Natal for my thesis about Paddy Kearney.

Many will recall the role that Paddy played in working alongside Archbishop Denis Hurley of Durban and other religious leaders in fighting apartheid through the Diakonia Council of Churches in Durban in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

In his final years, Paddy founded the Denis Hurley Centre (which I serve as director). He also wrote an award-winning biography of Archbishop Hurley. The title of that book uses the name which the great author Alan Paton coined for the archbishop, playing on Hurley père’s profession as a lighthouse keeper: The Guardian of the Light. I used to tease Paddy: “This means that you are the ‘Guardian of the Guardian of the Light’.” It seems that I have now become the “Guardian of the Guardian of the Guardian of the Light”!

Joking aside, I believe that Paddy Kearney’s life is an important example for us to reflect on what it means to be the Church of today.

Although the Second Vatican Council took place 60 years ago, it is clear that it remains hugely relevant for our understanding of who the Church is and what role it plays “in the modern world”. That is how Vatican II deliberately termed it — in, not against or outside or despite, the modern world. The ongoing Synod on Synodality is a direct descendant of a Vatican II approach to Church.

Paddy, who was born in 1942, grew up in the “old Church” before Vatican II. He was nurtured on the Latin Mass and lived in a “Catholic ghetto”. After a few years in religious life, he spent his adult years not just reflecting but also promoting the Vatican II view of Church.

Reflecting Vatican II

For example, the Fathers of the Council showed Catholics how they could work closely with other Christians (see the decree on ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio) — and Paddy did this through Diakonia. They encouraged Christians to look positively at people of other faiths (Nostra Aetate) — and Paddy showed how this could be possible, through the Denis Hurley Centre and also the Gandhi Development Trust. The Council urged the Church to be close to people in “their joys and hopes, sufferings and anxieties” (Gaudium et Spes) — and Paddy’s work as a social activist was informed by this.

And most significantly, Paddy — who worked not only with cardinals, archbishops and bishops of the Catholic Church but also with leaders of all denominations and faiths — did so as a “mere” layman. He was someone who never held an office nor a title within the Church, and yet his influence in the Church and wider society was profound, and his advice was sought by Archbishop Hurley and a host of other Church leaders.

Remember it was Vatican II that, for the first time in the nearly 2000 years of Christian history, dedicated a document, Apostolicam Actuositatem, to the role of lay people, who make up 99,92% of the Church’s membership.

So Paddy’s life is a way of seeing what it is to live out the challenge of Vatican II. Reflecting on his life can then help us to ask ourselves what we can do in our own context to contribute to the role of the Church as defined by the Council to be “the light for all peoples” (Lumen Gentium).

Why I wrote about Paddy

This is one of the reasons why, for me, writing about Paddy was important. There was also a personal reason, since he was a man whom I greatly admired. What is more, many other people did so too. Durban’s Emmanuel cathedral was packed for his funeral, five years ago this month, and a number of cabinet ministers had flown in from Pretoria to give him honour. As former finance minister Pravin Gordhan said to me at the time: “You don’t know how often Paddy saved my life!”

But it is also important to write that story because people like Paddy generally do not get written about. Our history shelves are full of the lives of “great men” (and it is predominately men): the presidents and monarchs and bishops whose names are celebrated. It is rare to be able to read about the story of an ordinary person, albeit one who did extraordinary things.

But Paddy is not alone. In each of our families and communities, our parishes and our towns, there are great stories to be recorded of the lives and exploits of “ordinary people”: the priest who led the community in the face of great obstacles; the teacher who inspired a generation; the gogo who dedicated her life to her children and other people’s children; the hardworking volunteer who was the backbone of the SVP or sodality.

Telling stories

In researching the life of Paddy, I had the chance to interview 70 people who worked closely with him. They delighted in telling me their stories and I am supremely grateful to them for doing so. But each of them has many more stories to tell which are well worth capturing. Sadly a few have died since I started the work — most recently the charming and kind-hearted Br Mario Colussi, who had been a fellow Marist novice with Paddy. But many are still alive, so their stories can be recorded before it is too late.

I had the structure of a PhD to do my research, and the benefit of an excellent supervisor in Br Philippe Denis OP. But any one of us has the chance to sit down with someone who is advancing in years, with a notepad or recorder — or both on smartphones — and encourage them to share their stories. And thanks to the Internet and social media, any one of us can write up and publish those stories so that they are not forgotten.

In November, we focus on remembering those who have passed before us; but we have the chance to memorialise them now before they die and thereby make sure that when they do go, their voices are not silenced.

Raymond Perrier will be delivering a lecture about Paddy Kearney in Johannesburg on November 11. A book based on his thesis will appear next year. Anyone who wants a copy of the thesis (all 241000 words) is welcome to contact him on .