Archbishop Owen Cardinal McCann becomes South Africa’s first cardinal.

Roman Catholic Church Archbishop of Cape Town, Owen McCann, an enemy of Apartheid, became South Africa's first Cardinal when he was invested by Pope Paul VI in St Peter's Basilica. Early in Cardinal McCann's tenure as Archbishop, the South African Catholic Church began campaigning against Apartheid. In 1976, in an open letter to the Government, he made a particularly strong attack on its racial segregation policy and related matters. His attack came at the height of anti-Government rioting in Black communities. "We see these upheavals as the result of a burning sense of injustice among those who are deprived of so many rights. Depriving a person of his rights as a human being is a kind of violence,” he stated. In 1988 Cardinal McCann accompanied the Pope on his visit to five African nations, but not including South Africa. During the journey, Pope John Paul II also voiced strong criticism of Apartheid.