Wilfrid Napier

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

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


[edit] Biography

Napier was born 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 phrase pax et bonum which translated means "Peace and goodwill".

Archbishop Napier, who is black, 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 Ratzinger.

In January, 2005, Archbishop 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]

[edit] External links

  • An article discussing Cardinal Napier's sentiments about the Papal conclave, before the fact