Guardian of the Light : Denis Hurley: Renewing the Church, Opposing Apartheid (Hardcover)

His role within the Roman Catholic Church was just as controversial, though not as incendiary. Chosen by Pope John XXIII in 1962 to sit on the 25-member Preparatory Commission of the Second Vatican Council, he was prominent among the progressive majority of bishops who battled against a reluctant Vatican bureaucracy to steer the church in a reformist direction. He disagreed with the birth control encyclical Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI, and his disagreement only intensified over the years in view of the devastating AIDS epidemic sweeping Southern Africa. More recently, Hurley had the pain of watching an institution which he had founded, the International Committee on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), destroyed by the Vatican because of its bold, progressive initiatives. Among his numerous honors was the Order of Meritorious Service awarded by Nelson Mandela in 1999. Hurley died aged 88 on 13 February 2004.