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Wilfrid Fox Napier, OFM (born 1941) is a South African cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Durban, South Africa.

Styles of
Wilfrid Fox Napier
CardinalCoA PioM
Reference style His Eminence
Spoken style Your Eminence
Informal style Cardinal
See Durban

Biography[]

Napier, a black South African, was born on March 8, 1941 in Swartberg, South Africa and ordained a priest in 1970. He first became a bishop in 1980 when he was appointed bishop of Kokstad. In 1992, he succeeded Denis Hurley as archbishop of Durban, a position he still holds. He chose as his episcopal motto the franciscan phrase pax et bonum which translated means "Peace and goodwill".

Cardinal Napier is a member of the Episcopal Board of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. Napier was proclaimed a Cardinal Priest of the Church in 2001 and was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Views[]

Condoms and HIV[]

In January, 2005, Cardinal Napier made controversial statements arguing that government programmes to distribute condoms were ineffectual in stemming the spread of HIV. Instead, he proposed programmes based around abstinence.[1]

Holy See and African churches[]

Cardinal Napier has said bluntly that to some extent, the Vatican lacks a "sufficient sensitivity to African churches." He said the pope's trips to Africa have helped in that regard, since every time he comes, Vatican officials are forced to learn something about Africa. [2]

References[]

External links[]

la:Vilfridus Fox Napier no:Wilfrid Fox Napier ru:Напье, Уилфрид Фокс

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