LIMA, Peru (AP) – Peruvian theologian Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, father of justice-oriented liberation theology that the Vatican once criticized for his Marxist leanings, has died. He was 96 years old.
The Dominican Order of Peru announced on social media that a Catholic priest died on Tuesday night in a monastery in Lima, the capital of the South American country. It didn’t give us a reason to die.
Gutiérrez’s liberation theology put the poor first and had a great influence on the teachings and history of the Latin American church. His 1971 book “A Theology of Liberation” was highly influential in proposing a religion based on social justice that focuses on the poor and states that poverty is “a shameful condition, an attack on human dignity, and therefore, against the will of God.” .”
“We thank God for having a faithful theologian who never thought about money, or luxuries, or anything that seemed to elevate him,” said Cardinal and Archbishop of Lima Carlos Castillo in a statement after Gutiérrez’s death. Although he was young, he knew how to proclaim the Gospel to us with strength and courage in his youth.
Gutiérrez’s thinking attracted many who were outraged by inequality and dictatorship in several Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s. But his views were heavily criticized by the Vatican, which spent decades disciplining some of its most vocal supporters.
Gutiérrez, who himself has never been disciplined, told reporters in 2015 that liberal theology as a whole was not condemned, but admitted that the Holy See had engaged in a “very serious dialogue” with its supporters and that there were “difficult moments.”
The Vatican opposed the foundation of liberal theology in Marxist social analysis – especially the concept of class struggle in the promotion of social, political and economic justice for the poor. Some versions of liberation theology do not agree with the teachings of the church because they see Christ as a mere social liberator.
The arrival of the first Latin American pope, Pope Francis, focused the Vatican’s attention on social justice and the poor and led to something of a revival of liberation theology.
“I think that at this moment, the climate around this theology is different. That’s true,” Gutiérrez told reporters at the time.
When he turned 90 in 2018, Pope Francis wrote him a letter thanking him for his contributions “to the Church and to humanity, for your religious service and your special love for the poor and the outcasts of society.”
Gutiérrez was born in Lima on June 8, 1928. He received a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Lyon. In addition to his theological work, Gutiérrez served a parish in the Lima area for more than twenty years.
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