Some memories of the 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu 1931 — 2021 This morning the Archbishop Desmond Tutu died peacefully in Cape Town. Here are some personal memories from my time as a journalist in South Africa which I wrote when he turned ninety barely two months ago. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba announces death of Archbishop Tutu “It is with great sadness that I have to announce that our dearly beloved…

Getting Christmas all wrong in a new society I walk through a festive Berlin, enjoying the sights and smells of the German Christmas spirit. The ornate Christmas lights in the trees, lining Unter den Linden and other avenues. Understated, stylish and no bling. There is a sweet smell of spices in glühwein and in the traditional Lebküchen (German…

Refugee Filmmaker in Berlin While attending the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, Afghan filmmaker Ghafar Faizyar shared his story with me about coming to Berlin in 2014 to attend the Berlinale Talents— and then not being able to return to his homeland. This is not his first exile. …

How laity and bishops got together to push for reforms I have been covering the German Catholics for close on 15 years. For years I felt like I have been regurgitating the same story and then at the end of September in what has been a crisis ridden decade, it…

Reflections of a journalist in Berlin The Angela Merkel era in Germany will end when voters there go to the polls on Sunday September 26. An East German pastor’s daughter, she became Chancellor on November 22, 2005. …

You make some valid points and in dealing with their past they have set a good example in recent years, but it took a long time. You would no doubt know from your time here that the reality is much more complicated. The German Bishop's Conference is certainly not united on all issues: they are pretty divided on many other issues - how to deal with sexual abuse cases, for example. And there are huge differences between the different Dioceses and some of these conflicts sometimes spill over into the public domain.

South African investigative journalist, speaker of truth to power Hennie (JHP) Serfontein is especially remembered for his Broederbond investigative journalism exposés. Serfontein was also the journalist who broke the news that then political prisoner Nelson Mandela was in secret talks with the apartheid South African Government. A major journalistic scoop…

“It is the most trying Madiba Day since democracy” South Africa faced its worst post-democracy Mandela Day, since 1994. On July 18, each year the world remembers Nelson Mandela’s birthday with Madiba Day where his legacy is honored through 67 minutes of volunteering and community service. In South Africa this…

Hope in 1989, horror in 1938 and peace in 1918 No other date tells the history of twentieth-century Germany as poignantly as November 9. No other date is so laden with the burdens of the history of this country. And no other date symbolizes so strongly irreversible changes about to become reality. On two occasions in 1918 and 1989, they…