Pope Francis bids farewell to Father Gustavo Gutiérrez: ‘a great man, a man of the Church’

Pope Francis sent a video message to the Archdiocese of Lima on the occasion of the funeral of Father Gustavo Gutiérrez on October 24. “Today I think of Gustavo,” the Pope said, calling him “a great man, a man of the Church.”

Known as the “father of liberation theology,” who rose to prominence in South America in the 1960s and 1970s as a way to respond to the needs of Latin America’s poor, Gutiérrez died on October 22. at 96 years old.

Francis said he was a man who “knew how to remain silent when he needed to be, who knew how to suffer when he had to suffer and who managed to produce so much apostolic fruit and such rich theology.”

The pontiff’s message, which was recorded in the midst of the final days of the Synod on Synodality in Rome, was published on the YouTube channel of the Archdiocese of Lima on October 24.

During his homily in the Basilica of the Most Holy Rosary of the Convent of Santo Domingo in Lima, celebrated by Cardinal-designate Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, the archbishop of Lima said that “we owe Gustavo phrases that helped us understand how to move with people. One of them is: ‘How good we would be if it weren’t for reality.’ This phrase baffles us and reminds us that reality constantly calls us.”

Thousands of worshipers participated in the funeral, according to Spanish Catholic news outlet Religión Digital.

During the homily, Castillo used Gutiérrez’s words that “if we are not loved freely, life has no meaning,” which meant for him that God’s love is free and recognized in the lives of others, especially in that of those who suffer. For the archbishop, Gutiérrez’s testament is his unconditional love for others.

“Gustavo, with his delicacy and humanity, took the preferential option for the poor to a universal dimension, although this earned him many attacks,” said the archbishop, explaining that for him liberation theology was “‘pure Gospel,’ a theology rooted in the life of the poor and in the understanding of the free love of God.”

Despite the criticism, the cardinal-designate stated, Gutiérrez “continued his path with humility and courage, a testimony that has left a profound legacy in the Church and society.”

Born in Lima on June 8, 1928, Gutiérrez completed his studies in philosophy at the University of Leuven in Belgium and his theology studies in Lyon, France, and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome before returning to Peru, where he taught at the Catholic University of Lima. .

However, it was his pastoral work in a parish in Lima and as theological consultant at the 1968 meeting of Latin American bishops in Medellín, Colombia, a regional meeting that aimed to adapt the conclusions of the Second Vatican Council to the Latin American context, that led him to the development of his 1971 book, “A Theology of Liberation.”

While liberation theology’s call for a preferential option for the poor and liberation from unjust social structures resonated with many Catholics in Latin America, its politicization (particularly among those sympathetic to Marxist ideology) was at odds with the church, particularly during the presidency of Saint John Paul II. pontificate.

Gutiérrez was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Lima in 1959, but in 2001 he entered the Dominican order and soon after began teaching at the University of Notre Dame, where he held the title of John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Theology. He lived in Lima the last years of his life.

“Father Gustavo was a beloved member of the Notre Dame community and we join his family and fellow Dominicans in thanking God for his extraordinary life,” said university president Father Robert A. Dowd.

“His invaluable contributions as a scholar and theologian and his commitment as a priest to live out the call of the Gospel are an inspiration to us all,” added Dowd.

In an Oct. 23 news release, the university said Gutiérrez “called on Christians to accompany and learn from the impoverished among us, significantly advancing the concept known as preferential option for the poor.”

Michael E. Lee, who earned graduate degrees at Notre Dame under Gutierrez and is now a professor of theology at Fordham University, was quoted by Notre Dame as saying: “In the way it offers both a diagnosis of the evils of our world as a vision of “The way the church can help transform them, ‘A Liberation Theology’ remains as relevant today as it was half a century ago.”

Father Rómulo Vásquez Gavidia, provincial superior of the Dominicans of Peru, said during the October 24 funeral that after entering the Dominican order, “he always remained close to his religious community, visiting the convent and sharing moments of brotherhood with his siblings”.

Yolanda Díaz, a lay follower and friend of Gutiérrez, said he was a “man of active hope,” who taught the faithful to observe reality “with eyes of faith,” even in moments of difficulty.

Díaz said that Gutiérrez urged lay people to live with “one foot in the Church, listening to God who calls us from his people,” and the other foot “in the reality” of their lives.
This duality between spirituality and social reality was key in the training that Díaz and others received from Gutiérrez, he said, according to Religión Digital.

Among those who mourned the late theologian’s death was his old friend, German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose 2014 book “Poor to the Poor: The Mission of the Church,” It included two chapters. written by Gutiérrez, whom he called “one of the great Catholic theologians and personalities of our time.”

“We can learn from him. And furthermore, we are aware that he is not dead, but that he is living in heaven with God, in the communion of saints, and he is praying for us and giving us a good example with his life and work” Müller said in a telephone interview with OSV News on October 23.

Gutiérrez’s remains were buried in the 16th-century Monastery of Santo Domingo in Lima.