Donal Raymond Lamont (27 July 1911 – 14 August 2003), was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

bishop and missionary who was best known for his fight against

white minority rule In political science, minoritarianism (or minorityism) is a neologism for a political structure or process in which a minority segment of a population has a certain degree of primacy in that entity's decision making. Minoritarianism may be contr ...

(now

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

Early years

Donal Raymond Lamont was born on 27 July 1911 at Ballycastle,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, in

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

, the northern

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. He was a pupil at the

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

school

Terenure College Terenure College is a Carmelite-run secondary school located in the suburb of Terenure, Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1860 and had an associated primary school until 2017. It is one of the "big six" Leinster Schools Rugby-playin ...

, in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. In 1929 he entered the

Carmelite Order , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Ca ...

, doing his novitiate in

Kinsale Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a population of 5,281 (a ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. After studies at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

, he studied theology at St Albert's College, Rome and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

as a priest in Rome during July 1937. On returning to Ireland, he taught English literature at Terenure. In 1946, he volunteered to go to the new Carmelite mission in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

(now

), and went with two companions to Umtali (now known as

Mutare Mutare (formerly Umtali) is the most populous city in the province of Manicaland, and the third most populous city in Zimbabwe, having surpassed Gweru in the 2012 census, with an urban area, urban population of 224,802 and approximately 260,567 ...

), in the east of the country, and close to the border with

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

. In August 1953, Southern Rhodesia joined with

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

and

Nyasaland Nyasaland () was a British protectorate located in Africa that was established in 1907 when the former British Central Africa Protectorate changed its name. Between 1953 and 1963, Nyasaland was part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasala ...

to form the

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation or CAF, was a colonial federation that consisted of three southern African territories: the Self-governing colony, self-governing British colony of Southe ...

, a form of 'federal colony' within the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. In 1957, Umtali was given the status of a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

, and Lamont appointed its first bishop.The Telegraph: Obituary
/ref>

''Purchased People''

In 1959, Bishop Lamont wrote his first pastoral letter as a bishop, entitled ''Purchased People''. This dealt with matters relating to racial prejudice and segregation, and was highly critical of the policies of the Government of the

. The letter contained a strong denunciation of those who treated members of other races as inferior. He explicitly based this on the Catholic teaching on the dignity of the human person: "Should not reason and justice and every noble instinct of civilised man, and particularly of every Christian man, rebel at the thought of despising or branding with a stigma of inferiority, our neighbour with whom we share so much in common?". Throughout the letter, he repeatedly contrasted the attitudes and actions of the Government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the white minority with those that he regarded as authentically Christian. The specific problems that he concentrated on were those of the confiscation of land, and governmental control of education. In particular he condemned the difference in educational opportunity available to children of the two racial groups, and accused the government of obstructing efforts by Christian missionaries to improve educational provision for black children: "Missionaries have been waiting, quite literally for years, for permission from the State to open the most elementary kind of village schools which the African people require and demand and are willing to erect at their own expense; and the applications, detailed and in writing, are still ungranted."

UDI

The

was broken up at the end of December 1963.

reverted to being a self-governing

Crown colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...

in its own right when the Federation ended. When

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to ...

came to power in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

and declared Southern Rhodesia's

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

in November 1965, Bishop Lamont was horrified. He had been a long-time critic of the policies of both the Government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and the Government of Southern Rhodesia, claiming they were

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

. Amongst his criticism, Lamont wrote an open letter to

, then

Prime Minister of Rhodesia The prime minister of Rhodesia (Southern Rhodesia before 1964) was the head of government of Rhodesia. Rhodesia, which had become a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom in 1923, unilaterally declared independence on 11 November 1965, ...

, saying: "Far from your policies defending Christianity and

Western civilization Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

, as you claim, they mock the law of Christ and make

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

attractive to the African people." In other writings he declared

's constitution and land apportionment laws to be segregationist, unfair and "a direct contradiction of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

's teaching". He denounced the

white people White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

in power in the country as a colonial-style clique while praising black leaders and their guerrillas as freedom fighters. He continued to be highly critical of the Rhodesian Government, speaking out against their segregationist policies and also accusing them of responsibility for atrocities carried out by the armed forces. He had no criticism to make of the guerillas' activities.

Trial and deportation

Bishop Lamont was tried in 1976, accused of permitting nuns within his diocese to give medical aid to black

guerrillas Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tacti ...

and advising the nuns not to report this to the authorities, for their own safety. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment with hard labour, which was reduced to four years on appeal. He was detained in

Hospital, where he received treatment for injuries caused in a car accident, while the Rhodesian Government quietly made arrangements to just have him

deported Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...

. His Rhodesian

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

was revoked and he was deported to

in 1977. He was nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

in 1978. After the fall of the Smith government, he returned to his diocese, but later resigned and his place was taken by an African bishop, Alexio Muchabaiwa. Lamont then retired to the Carmelite community at

in Dublin, where he died on 14 August 2003.

References

External links

New York Times, Monday, February 9, 2009

Boston Globe, 9/2/2003

Picture

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamont, Donal 1911 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Zimbabwe 20th-century Zimbabwean people Alumni of University College Dublin Bishops appointed by Pope Pius XII Carmelites European anti-racism activists Irish Roman Catholic missionaries Immigrants to Rhodesia Irish emigrants Irish expatriate Catholic bishops People deported from Rhodesia People from Ballycastle, County Antrim People from Mutare Prisoners and detainees of Rhodesia Rhodesian Roman Catholic bishops Roman Catholic anti-apartheid activists Roman Catholic bishops of Mutare White Rhodesian people Zimbabwean exiles