The Denis Hurley Centre held the Denis Hurley Legacy Tour on Saturday, 5 August 2017 in the Midlands, Pietermaritzburg, where the late cardinal began his career in the church. Denis Hurley was the former superior at the Saint Joseph’s Scholastice, which was based in Prestbury at the time. He was among the first church leaders to denounce Apartheid, condemning the policy as an affront to human dignity. Pilgrimages from Durban and Pietermaritzburg visited areas that have links to Hurley and the Alan Paton Centre & Struggle Archives (APC) hosted the pilgrims at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.Alan Paton, renowned author of Cry, the Beloved Country on the occasion of Archbishop Denis Hurley’s 70th birthday said “Denis Hurley’s father was a lighthouse keeper, the guardian of the light that warns the sailors of dangers and guided them away from destruction. Our Archbishop has been doing this work of warning and guiding for the greater part of his life and he had done it with great faithfulness”.Nazim Gani, Senior Librarian at the (APC), said “Archbishop Hurley and Paton are one of our greatest South Africans. The similarity of their stature are their integrity, fearlessness, gentleness and spirit of their magnanimity”.A series of 15 interviews was conducted with Archbishop Hurley and Paddy Kearney as part of the APC Oral History Project, “Recording the anti-apartheid struggle in KZN”. These interviews tells the life of Archbishop Hurley and the role which he has played in KZN over the last fifty years.Archbishop Hurley helped to find PACSA, the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Awareness, and was the Chancellor of the former University of Natal from 1993-1998.
