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South Africans line up to pay their last respects to Desmond Tutu

South Africans from all corners of retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu's "rainbow nation" filed past his pine casket in Cape Town. The viewing line at St. George's Cathedral stretched for nearly a mile.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — South Africans from all corners of retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu's "rainbow nation" filed past his plain pine casket by the hundreds on Friday to pay their respects to his life of activism for equality for all races, creeds and sexual orientations.

"He was a moral giant. He was a moral and spiritual giant loved and revered for fighting for equality for all people," said the Rev. Michael Lapsley, on

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