The Dominican Province of San Juan Bautista Peru announced the news. The Church of Peru: “unceasing defender of the preferential option for the poor.”
Vatican News
On October 22, the philosopher and theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez died in Lima, as reported by the Dominican Province of Peru.
20:00 The Synod Assembly remembered Gustavo Gutiérrez
The General Secretariat shared the Synod on its social networks “During the morning prayer, the Synod Assembly remembered Gustavo Gutiérrez, Peruvian priest and “father of the theology of freedom”, who died at the age of 96. Rest in peace.”
16:37 Cardinal Barreto remembers the legacy of Father Gustavo Gutiérrez
The president of the Ecclesiastical Conference of the Amazon recounts his last meeting with the Peruvian Dominican, who died this October 22, and hopes that Gutiérrez’s testimony will help us to continue walking in the presence of Jesus for the service of humanity.
15:00 Continental Amerindian
Rosario Hermano and Alejandro Ortiz, executive secretary and general coordinator of Amerindia Continental, highlight the central aspects of the legacy of Father Gustavo Gutiérrez.
13:00 Bartolomé de las Casas Institute
“It is a great loss for the Latin and Caribbean and universal Church, Gustavo leaves us his great legacy, a theology made of life itself, of the priority choice of the poor and a legacy that invites us to continue to dedicate ourselves to the poor. and excluded from our societies”, Silvia Cáceres Frisancho:
10.30 Favorable choice for the poor
“From the Episcopal Conference of Peru we join in the sorrow of the entire Peruvian Church, the Dominican community and the whole world, for the eternal rest of Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, tireless defender of the preference of the poor, who went to the Father’s House . This Tuesday, October 22,” says the Peruvian church on its website.
“He was a tireless defender of the preference for the poor, a phrase he coined and integrated into the Magisterium of the Church as a fundamental path to live our faith,” said Cardinal-elect Carlos Castillo, archbishop of Lima. .
“This friend of ours, a Peruvian priest, was with the Church throughout his life, faithful in the most difficult times, always reminding us that the true shepherd must take care of his sheep, especially the poor, ” said Archbishop Castillo.
The cardinal-elect recalled that “John Paul II recognized that the preference for the poor is neither exclusive nor exclusive, but that it is firm and irrevocable.” And, said Pope Francis – Castillo – “shows us that the path is promising, knowing that the Gospel is the first one that has that option.”
The Archbishop of Lima states that the participation of Gustavo Gutiérrez opened the way for the hope of redemption of the poor and the small, the hope of redemption that Jesus Christ opens to all humanity through the poor and the poor.
Francisco’s message for his 90th birthday
On the 90th birthday of the religious, who was born in 1928 in Lima, Pope Francis had sent him a letter, in which he emphasized his “theological service” and thanked him for his “fatigue” and his way “challenging the conscience. each of them.” , so that no one is in the same mind about the drama of poverty and exclusion.
Studies and books
The theologian has written many works in the last four decades, starting with the main works Liberation Theologypublished in 1971. In it, a former student of medicine and literature in Peru, then of psychology and philosophy in Leuven, Belgium, and again of theology at the Catholic University of Lyon, Rome and Paris, he theorized political freedom and social, that is, to eliminate the sites of poverty and injustice; human liberation, that is, the liberation of the marginalized and oppressed; divine deliverance from selfishness and sin. The social pain of Latin America, the teaching of the Council and, as has been said, the constant reference to the Gospel inspired these reflections which were later expressed in many other volumes.
The four-hand volume by Cardinal MĂĽller
Was one of the last On the side of the poor. Theology of freedom, theology of the Church (Edizioni Messaggero – Editrice Missionaria Italiana), published in 2013 and written by the rector of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time, Cardinal Gerard Ludwig Müller. Theologians, the Vatican and experts welcomed the book as a singular fact: a work of four hands between one of the great exponents of the Theology of Freedom and the warden of that Old Holy Office who, precisely on this stream, expressed himself with two guide in the eighties. . Between them, however, there was an old friendship, as well as a common concern for the development of the world economy and European theology. This is how they explained it themselves in Rome, in a crowded presentation on Via della Conciliazione, which ended with the gift of a poncho characteristic of the poor peasants of the Peruvian Andes to the German capital.
“Samaritan Church”
The words spoken by Gutiérrez at the event are noteworthy, speaking of the “Samaritan Church”, a synthesis of the idea of ​​service taken from the parable of the “Good Samaritan” that Pope Francis wanted. A parable that encourages us, said the theologian, to reflect on “Who is my neighbor?”, but also on “Who has become my neighbor?” Müller, for his part, shared the path that led him to have a particular sensitivity to the issue of poverty: from his humble beginnings in Mainz with a factory worker father and a housewife mother with five children, through his experiences in the 80s among people. without food, water, clothing and medical care, to his Bishop in Regensburg, with many priests from poor countries around the world. Experiences from which the Cardinal matured in the opinion that the Church is the sacrament of salvation for men and among men, and that its action can only be evangelization and redemption. Something Gustavo Gutiérrez tried to confirm for years.