Archbishop Desmond Tutu to stay second night in hospital

Archbishop Desmond Tutu to stay second night in hospital
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries and the ASSIST News Service
CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA (ANS – July 15, 2015) – The BBC is reporting that South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu will spend a second night in hospital for treatment of a “persistent infection”, his family says.
Archbishop Tutu thanked “everyone who had sent love and prayers” since his admission to hospital in Cape Town, his daughter Reverend Mpho Tutu said.
The family hopes he will be able to return home “in a day or two”, his daughter said in an earlier statement.
He retired from public life in 2011 but continues to travel widely.
The 83-year-old Nobel peace laureate cancelled a planned trip to Rome in December following another infection.
“The admission is not thought to be linked to Archbishop Tutu's treatment for prostate cancer, which has afflicted him for more than a decade,” said the BBC.
His hospitalization comes a few days after he renewed his wedding vows to his wife Leah Tutu to mark their 60th wedding anniversary.
The BBC says that Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe may have described him as "evil", but Archbishop Desmond Tutu remains a much-loved figure across the world - principally for his role in South Africa's struggle against apartheid.
During the long years that Nelson Mandela was in prison, Archbishop Tutu spoke out against the regime - and won the Nobel peace prize in 1984 for his efforts.
He was chosen by President Mandela to chair South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and investigate the crimes committed by all sides during the apartheid regime.
At 78, "the Arch" - as he is known - has remained irrepressible and influential both in his native South Africa and on the global political stage.
He is chairman of a group of former world leaders called The Elders, launched on Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday in 2007 with the aim of tackling some of the world's most pressing problems.
Photo captions: 1) Desmond Tutu and his wife have four children and seven grandchildren together (Getty Images). 2) Dan Wooding interviewing Desmond Tutu at the headquarters of Church Army in Sheffield, UK, as Church Army leader, Mark Russell, looks on. 3) Dan Wooding.
About the writer: Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren, who all live in the UK. He is the author of some 45 books, and has interviewed Archbishop Tutu during a visit to Church Army headquarters in Sheffield, England, where Dan’s elder son, Andrew, works.
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