The Catholic Times

South African Bishops Defended In Politics Charge on Race Issue

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - (NC) - The South African Bishops' chief spokesman on racial questions has replied strongly to charges in the Nationalist press that the Bishops' condemnations of apartheid should be dismissed as the utterances of political prelates."

Archbishop Denis E. Hurley, O.M.I., of Durban, chairman of the African Affairs Department of the South African Bishops' Conference, spoke out on the Hierarchy's stand against the Nationalist government's race separation policies in The Forum, one of South Africa's best known weekly reviews.

In an article entitled "The Catholic Bishops and Apartheid," he said that it has never been contended that a completely tidy separation could be made between things of Caesar and the things of God.

Declaring that the Catholic Bishops felt obliged to issue their warning on apartheid because "it is becoming evident to increasing numbers that apartheid cannot be reconciled with the moral law," the Archbishop said:

"The law of Caesar is subordinate to the law of God. Caesar's subject is also a citizen of God's kingdom, and the conscience that dictates his behavior toward Caesar is shaped by the Church that represents God. It is inevitable therefore that we should have political bishops.

"Political, of course, can be understood in two ways: first, as interested in party politics, which is usually bad for the bishop and worse for the party; secondly, as interested in the moral implications of political action, of law making, law observance and law enforcement, which is good for the bishop and good for politics. Nay, more, obligatory upon bishops, and in regard to politics, necessary for salvation.

"When somebody lets go a blast at political bishops, it is essential to know what he is talking about. If he objects to bishops pontificating on party differences which are perfectly legitimate within the framework of morality, he is justified.

"Bishops should not concern themselves officially with the choice of this or that morally acceptable method of achieving the temporal welfare of the state. Within the bounds of what is morally permissible there is a wide field for honest difference of opinion. That is the field for politicians, not bishops.

"If, however, the blast is directed at bishops because they dare comment on the moral implications of laws or executive procedures or the administration of justice, the blast is unwarranted. Bishops have a duty in regard to truth and morality.

"There is no parliament so supreme that it can legislate the Ten Commandments out of existence. Bishops who think that the Commandments are being disregarded in the public life of the country have a right and a duty to say so.

Referring to the statement in which the Hierarchy condemned the government's white supremacy theory as blasphemy, Archbishop Hurley said that the Bishops did not want "to provoke a social and ecclesiastical explosion." He said, however:

"They do intend to state Christian principles clearly and to point out their application in a manner that will educate the moral judgment of their people and contribute, they hope, to a general change of attitude among white South Africans."