Mandela | National Catholic Reporter

Mandela | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: I did not know President Mandela personally, but friends, chief among them Rev. Walter Faunteroy (who started the Free South Africa protests in the US by chaining himself to the South African embassador's desk on Black Friday) and I are part of what Dr. King called the Beloved Community.  I feel this loss personally.  Come next week I can celebrate his resurrection - which is assured due to his taking on the mantle of peace.  First, some grief and tears are in order.  Of course, some of that may be an awareness of my own mortality and those of my friends (such as Lawrence Guyot and my young South African friend Shuta Myoli, who came here fleeing persecution).  It is an interesting twist of fate that our first black president will attend the funeral - and sad that South Africa, the land of Apartheid, elected a black president before the United States - the home of Jesse Helms and Mitch (block all actions Obama supports) McConnell.  Maybe that is why I am sad.