Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, a Peruvian Dominican priest considered the “father” of liberation theology, died on October 22 at the age of 96.
The Dominican Province of San Juan Bautista of Peru reported the death from the author of Liberation Theology: Perspectives (1971), Gutiérrez’s most famous book.
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“We ask that you accompany us with your prayers so that our dear brother enjoys eternal life,” says the statement signed by Br. Rómulo Vásquez Gavidia OP, prior provincial.
The Dominicans stated that the remains of the author of The historical strength of the poor (1978) will be held in the convent of Santo Domingo in the historic center of Lima, the Peruvian capital.
One of Gustavo Gutiérrez’s last interventions at an international event took place in Rome, in October 2019, at the congress Communion and Participationheld in the general curia of the Jesuits in Rome. On that occasion, the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (CAL) invited him to give the conference “The preferential option for the poor.”
A year earlier, in June 2018, Pope Francis sent a letter to Gutiérrez for his 90th birthday, in which he thanked him “for how much you have contributed to the Church and humanity, through your theological service and your preferential love.” for the poor and the discarded of society.
The Vatican and the liberation theology of Father Gustavo Gutiérrez
In January 2017, the Spanish newspaper The Country published an interview with Pope Francis, in which he stated: “Liberation theology was a positive thing in Latin America. The part that opted for the Marxist analysis of reality was condemned by the Vatican. Cardinal (Joseph) Ratzinger He made two instructions when he was prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith. One was very clear about the Marxist analysis of reality. And the second took up positive aspects. Liberation theology had positive aspects and also had deviations, especially in the part of the. Marxist analysis of reality.
During the papacy of Saint John Paul, the Congregation – today the Dicastery – for the Doctrine of the Faith carried out an investigation, at the end of which two instructions were published.
The first was broadcast on August 6, 1984, with the title The Message of Libertyand responds to Gutiérrez’s postulates in his book Liberation Theology. Perspectives. The second instruction is called Consciousness of freedomand was published on March 22, 1986.
“The Instruction’message of freedom on some aspects of liberation theology, he announced the intention of the Congregation to publish a second document, which would highlight the main elements of Christian doctrine on freedom and liberation. This Instruction responds to this intention. There is an organic relationship between both documents. They must be read in light of each other,” points out paragraph 2 of the second instruction.
Both instructions bear the signature of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and who later became Pope Benedict XVI.
In a 2006 note, the Peruvian Episcopal Conference reported that the Vatican had “given the path of clarification concluded of the problematic points contained in some of the author’s works” in 2004, with a second revised version of Gutiérrez’s article entitled The ecclesial Koinonía.
The life of Gustavo Gutiérrez
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino Díaz was a Peruvian theologian and priest, born on June 8, 1828.
He was ordained a priest in 1959 and was a Dominican since 2001.
He studied medicine and literature at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos when he was already part of Catholic Action.
He studied theology at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and at the University of Lyon (France). He has been a professor at the universities of Michigan, Cambridge, Comillas, Berkeley, Sao Paulo, among others.
His books have been translated into different languages. He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities in 2003.
In 2012 he received the National Culture Award from the Ministry of Culture of Peru and Petroperú.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.