REST IN PEACE, DESMOND TUTU #great warmth and humor #the sun has gone down #the rebellious priest #nobel prize winner #anti-apartheid #a mentor # God made you beautiful

 

                                   REST IN PEACE, DESMOND TUTU

"Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones - this year especially I understand why," Queen Elizabeth, 95, said on December 25, 2021. It was her first annual Christmas message since her husband Prince Phillip died.

The following day, Queen Elizabeth, in reacting to the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, she remembered "with fondness her meetings" with Archbishop Desmond Tutu "and his great warmth and humour."

"The sun has gone down in the middle of the day," a man in South Africa commented on the death of 90 year old Desmond Tutu. "It is a dark day," a South African women said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury paid tribute to Desmond Tutu. "He just had this extraordinary, bubbly, overwhelming sense of humour."

Desmond Tutu, "the rebellious priest" "never shied away from speaking his mind, he's been a prominent anti-apartheid critic" the BBC Africa (produced and edited by Tim Hodges) said.

Desmond Tutu was a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He  celebrated his 90th birthday in October 2021,  but had "largely withdrawn from public life more than a decade ago." Nevertheless his outstanding role in "denouncing white minority rule in apartheid-era South Africa" is still remembered.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was "one of the driving forces behind the anti- apartheid movement in South Africa." The country's President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that "he had helped bequeath a liberated South Africa."

South Africa's "last apartheid-era president, FW de Klerk" died recently. He was 85 years old.

Another person who paid tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu is former US President Barak Obama. "A mentor, friend and moral compass" is how he described the late Archbishop. 

What are some of the inspiring words that Archbishop Tutu said during his lifetime?

•  "The system of this country - apartheid - is immoral, it is evil."
•  "We are going to be free."
•  "God made you and God made you beautiful and no one can take that away   from you."

The words in his obituary on the BBC sum up the character of this outstanding man; "Desmond Tutu was a man of impeccably strong moral convictions who strove to bring about a peaceful South Africa."

Rest in Peace, Desmond Tutu.