LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peruvian theologian the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, the father of social justice-oriented liberation theology that the Vatican once criticized for its Marxist undercurrents, has died. He was 96.
The Dominican Order in Peru announced on social media that the Catholic priest died on Tuesday evening in a monastery in Lima, the capital of the South American country. It gave no cause of death.
Gutiérrez’s liberation theology placed the poor as a priority and exerted great influence on the doctrine and history of the church in Latin America. His 1971 book “A Theology of Liberation” had a profound impact by proposing a faith based on social justice, focused on the poor, and stating that poverty is “a shameful condition, an attack on human dignity , and therefore contrary to the will of God. .”
“We thank God that we had a faithful theologian-priest who never thought about money, luxury or anything else that seemed to make him superior,” Cardinal and Archbishop of Lima Carlos Castillo said in a statement after Gutiérrez’s death. “Small as he was, in his smallness he managed to proclaim the Gospel to us with strength and courage.”
Gutiérrez’s thinking attracted many who were outraged by the inequality and dictatorships in several Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s. But his ideals were severely criticized by the Vatican, which spent decades disciplining some of his most vocal supporters.
Gutiérrez, who was never disciplined himself, told reporters in 2015 that liberation theology as a whole was never condemned, but he acknowledged that the Holy See had conducted a “very critical dialogue” with its proponents and that there were “difficult moments.”
The Vatican objected to the foundation of liberation theology in the Marxist analysis of society – in particular the idea of class struggle to promote social, political and economic justice for the poor. Some versions of liberation theology conflict with the teachings of the church because they view Christ solely as a 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 rehabilitation of liberation theology.
“I think right now the climate around this theology is different. That is 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 humanity, through your theological service and your preferential love for the poor and the outcasts of society.”
Gutiérrez was born in Lima on June 8, 1928. He obtained a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Lyon. In addition to his theological work, Gutiérrez served a parish in a neighborhood in Lima for more than twenty years.
