Visa Problems Lead Missionary to Leave South Africa
Diocesan Press Service. August 5, 1970 [90-3]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The refusal by the government of South Africa to grant an extension of a temporary residence visa has forced an American Episcopal Church missionary to leave South Africa where he has served in an Anglican parish at Westville, Natal, for the past three years.
The Rev. C. Richard Cadigan, his wife and four children left Durban August 4 to return to the United States. They will fly directly to Detroit and will make their home during August in a clergy residence of Christ Church parish, Bloomfield Hills. He will join the faculty of the Wooster School, Danbury, Conn., in the fall.
Mr. Cadigan went to Natal in May, 1967, and he has been required by the South African government to renew his temporary residence visa every three to six months.
In January of this year he applied to the government for a change of status to permanent resident and was notified in March that the government would renew his temporary residence visa for the last time and that he would have to leave the country by August 31. The government gave no reason for the ouster.
Appeals for a change in the decision by the Rt. Rev. George Vernon Inman, Bishop of Natal, and by members of the parish were unsuccessful.
The Rt. Rev. J. Brooke Mosley, Deputy for Overseas Relations of the Episcopal Church in New York, expressed regret over the eviction of Mr. Cadigan but said that the Church's involvement with the Church in South Africa would continue.
"The Episcopal Church has been a partner in good work with the Anglican Church in South Africa," he said, "and in no situation have relationships been more cordial than those between Dick Cadigan add the people in the Diocese of Natal. Our life in the Church is international, and we are proud of the way Dick's ministry has exemplified this spirit. "
"The refusal of the South Africa government to extend his visa is regrettable. It seems to arise from fear of the consequences of open communication between the people of the Church in South Africa and the United States. The Episcopal Church will continue to make every effort to share its life and resources with the Church in South Africa. Without such sharing, each Church is weaker and more likely to be victim of the forces of separatism and isolation so dangerous to the Christian mission and to our world."
Bishop Mosley cited the fact that the Church of South Africa had contributed financially to the Delta Ministry in Mississippi as an example of partnership between the two Churches. The Delta Ministry is an ecumenical program assisting American blacks in the Deep South.
Mr. Cadigan is a nephew of the Rt. Rev. George L. Cadigan, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, which has a "Companion Diocese" relationship with the Diocese of Natal in the Province of the Church of South Africa.
In this relationship, the Dioceses of Missouri and Natal have exchanged clergymen, and Church members of the two Anglican Dioceses have made visits to the other.
In addition to his recent three-year tour, Mr. Cadigan in 1965-66 served for a year at a Natal parish at Greytown. He has been rector of St. Elizabeth's, Westville, a suburb of Durban, since 1967.
Two of the Cadigan children were born in South Africa.